Raised By ANBU
by iFrix
Summary: What if instead of leaving an orphaned jinchuuriki to live by himself Naruto was raised and trained by the elite of the elite? This is Naruto Raised By the ANBU! Pairings will be decided later.
1. Decision of a lifetime

Note: I don't own Naruto

**Chapter 1: Decision of a lifetime  
**  
Hiruzen Sarutobi was sitting in the Hokage's office and let out a long sigh while looking out the window. Even though it was already 4 o'clock in the morning the entire village of Konoha was still wide awake. Several hours earlier the village was attacked by the Kyuubi, the nine-tailed demon fox and though the battle was short many people died in the attack and there was a lot of damage. Even now there were still several fires around the larger civilian areas and all shinobi were hard at work putting them out with water-based ninjutsu.

Officially it was labeled a natural disaster, but he knew where the Kyuubi really came from of course. It escaped from its imprisonment when Kushina Uzumaki, the wife of his successor Minato Namikaze and the previous jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, underwent childbirth. For the last couple of weeks he and Minato went over the possibility of the seal loosening and how to prevent it from happening. It seemed however that their precautions weren't good enough and the demon managed to escape after all, killing its container in the process. Alongside Kushina his own wife Biwako, who acted as the midwife, and several of the most senior ANBU also died. He could still feel the terrible killing intent and power from the beast when it attacked Konoha and he could only imagine what his wife must have felt when it escaped and attacked them at point blank range. His only solace is that the Kyuubi would have killed them quickly and saw no point in making them suffer.

After the beast escaped however it made a straight line for Konoha itself and launched a surprise attack in the middle of the night. Its first target happened to be a very large civilian area since it was located in the center of the city while most of the ninjas live in their respective clan-compounds and apartments closer to the edge. It took several minutes before most shinobi were ready to counter-attack. But even that would have been a futile attempt had it not been for the fourth Hokage. After several minutes of desperately trying to stop the beast without much success the Fourth himself appeared on the battlefield alongside his summon Gamabunta the chief toad. He managed to teleport the beast away from the city and seal it away in his new-born son Naruto, thereby saving the town. Unfortunately he himself died in the summoningprocess in what looked like the Kyuubi's claw penetrating his upper torso as its last act of defiance before it was sealed away inside Naruto.

That was the scene he and two of his ANBU guards found when they reached the safehouse Minato teleported the Kyuubi to. So with Minato dead and no successor ready to take his place Hiruzen found himself once again in his old office with a baby in his arms and a village in despair demanding actions to be taken. That's why he ordered the ANBU to inform all clan-leaders and the elders that there would be an emergency meeting of the council to decide the future of Konoha and little Naruto, who was now sound asleep in his arms, unaware of the events which would now forever be associated with his birthday.

* * *

"I demand that you kill that demon!" said the representative of the civilian population. He looked at Naruto, still asleep despite the rather loud noises in the meeting room, with utter disgust in his eyes.

"Naruto himself is not the Kyuubi, but merely its container" Sarutobi tried to explain for the hundredth time that night, "and I will not tolerate killing innocent babies".

"The Kyuubi is too dangerous, we cannot risk it escaping again! Killing its container is the only way to destroy it for good" yelled the representative, wondering why the Hokage couldn't see reason.

"The seal of the fourth Hokage will hold the Kyuubi back! I can assure you there is no danger of it escaping again. We will not kill Naruto and that is final." The third said while slamming his hand on the table, making it clear that the topic was hereby closed.

"What do you suggest we do about little Naruto then?" asked Shibi Aburame in the calm and logical tone his clan was known for. "Does he have parents or legal guardians to take him in?"

"No, his parents died in the attack today and he has no other family." the Third answered vaguely, not wanting to reveal exactly who his father was.

"We can't put him in the orphanage, he's too dangerous. I refuse it!" said the civilian representative, still not entirely convinced that a simple seal can hold back a tailed beast.

For the next two hours the council debated several possibilities but all of them were shot down for various reasons. Getting adopted by a civilian family was impossible. Almost everyone lost someone in the attack and nobody would want to adopt the very demon they deemed responsible for it. The clans, while more convinced of the notion that Naruto himself wasn't a demon, weren't really willing to adopt him either. For one it would be obvious he was adopted since he wouldn't have the clan's bloodline and thus be unable to use any of their techniques. They also feared the backlash their clan would receive if they adopted a jinchuuriki, though none of them said that aloud of course. Danzo was willing to raise the child and insisted on turning him into a human weapon like Han and Roshi, the two jinchuuriki from Iwa or Killer B, the jinchuuriki from Kumo had been in the last war. However the Third was heavily against this idea and insisted that Naruto would not be raised as an emotionless puppet, he was supported by many of the clan heads in this decision.

The meeting was reaching a stalemate until suddenly a voice spoke up: "Perhaps I can offer a solution?"

The room was instantly silenced and everyone looked around trying to find the source of the words until they noticed it was one of the ANBU that spoke up. This shocked them since the ANBU, though present at every meeting for security reasons, never once interfered. Most had even forgotten they were even there since they usually stood at the side blending in with the shadows.

The Third looked at the ANBU that spoke up, a man wearing a mask with a dragon motive, and recognized him as Ryu the new commander of the ANBU. The previous commander Phoenix alongside 4 of his 5 captains were assigned as one of the guardians of Kushina and were amongst the first to die by the Kyuubi's hands and Ryu, the fifth captain and now the highest in rank, was named as the new commander despite his young age.

"Very well, come forward and explain yourself" ordered the Hokage wondering what the new ANBU commander had to say.

"Yes, lord Hokage." Ryu said while bowing politely and stepping forward.

"I propose that Naruto Uzumaki will be placed in the ANBU headquarters were he will be raised and supervised by the ANBU during his childhood." Ryu said quickly coming to the point.

"What!" the shock was clearly written on the face of everyone in the room, including the other ANBU who were now beginning to question the sanity of their new commander.

"Allow me to explain my reasons" Ryu said without flinching, "I can assure you I did not propose this lightly."

"Please explain your reasons for this most unorthodox proposal" Shikaku Nara said, having deemed this whole meeting too troublesome after debating for two hours.

"Of course" Ryu continued in his still calm voice. "The civilians demand that the jinchuuriki is put under heavy surveillance do they not? To make sure the Kyuubi never escapes again?" he asked this to the representative of the civilian council who answered with a quick yes. "Well then, what better place than the middle of ANBU headquarters? He will be surrounded at all times by dozens of highly classed ninjas who can interfere immediately should he start to lose control and are skilled enough to kill him it ever becomes necessary. If the seal ever breaks we can react immediately and stop the Kyuubi from attacking the village again." The civilian representative had nothing to say against that and only nodded his head towards the masked man.

"Lord Danzo" he said next, turning towards the heavily bandaged council member, "you deem that Naruto should be trained in the way of the ninja so that he may become an asset to our village correct?". The older man only nodded in response. "Well since he will be trained by the ANBU we can guarantee that he will receive the very best training a young ninja can hope for." Danzo scoffed at that idea. He was sure that his own Root organization would be more suited to prepare the boy than the ANBU were, but since Root officially didn't exist anymore he couldn't bring that up in a council meeting. So he reluctantly agreed that the ANBU were the best this village had to offer.

"And finally Lord Hokage" he said while turning towards the Third Hokage, "we can assure you that Naruto will be protected by the very best of this village. No one will harm him during our watch and he will be allowed to experience as normal a childhood as is possible for someone in his position."

"Does anyone have any objections to this proposal?" the Third asked to the people around the meeting room, "if not then I decree that Naruto Uzumaki will now be placed under the care and protection of the ANBU. You are dismissed".

The other members of the council left the room one by one until only the Third, Ryu and Naruto, still asleep, remained. "Ryu," the Hokage suddenly said, "why are you doing this?"

"Sir? I already explained the logic behind my proposal" Ryu answered. "Yes, and you did a fine job of convincing the other members with it. But I sense there is another reason you're not telling me. So once again: why are you doing this?"

Ryu remained silent for a while until he finally spoke up: "It is Kushina, sir."

"Kushina Uzumaki?" the Third asked, starting to see where this was going. "I was her old teammate, before she got married and retired." Ryu answered. "I couldn't just sit back while the council debated about killing her son. My apologies for lying to you and the council sir."

"No, it's alright," Sarutobi let out a small smile while he said this, "to be honest I'm starting to see more and more merit to the idea. I'll give you a week to make the preparations, and then I'll leave Naruto in your care." "Yes lord Hokage I will begin immediately." Ryu said as he bowed and returned to the ANBU headquarters.

* * *

"So it's babysitting?" asked Salamander, one of the newly appointed captains of ANBU.

"We are tasked with taking care of the new jinchuuriki of the nine-tails and to guarantee his safety as well as make sure the seal will hold" Ryu explained.

"But this Naruto, he is still a baby right?"

"He is a newborn, yes"

"And we have to feed him, change his diapers, make sure he sleeps and watch over him at night?"

"That is how one generally takes care of a baby" Ryu said.

"So it's babysitting?" Salamander asked again.

"yes", Ryu let out a sigh as he surrendered the point, "during the first 5 years of his life we will for all intents and purposes be nothing more than babysitters. Afterwards we are responsible for his training until he graduates and becomes a genin."

"Why are we responsible? Just let the academy handle him" Hawk, another newly appointed captain said.

"Don't be ridiculous! You know damn well that without specialized training at home it is near impossible to pass the academy by yourself. The low number of successful civilian ninjas is all the proof you need. There is a reason that 80 percent of our forces come from established clans even though the clans are only 10 percent of our population!" Ryu said. "Besides, it is crucial to the safety of the village that Naruto learns how to handle all the extra energy the Kyuubi will give him. His chakra network is already as big as that of a three year old and you just can't learn that level of control in the academy."

"I still don't like it," Salamander said, "I didn't join the ANBU so I could do goddamn babysitting missions again! This is a D-rank mission for crying out loud, let the genin handle it."

"It also an order from both the Hokage and the council, so you will do what you are told." Ryu said making it clear he didn't want to discuss it any further. "besides, it might be a D-rank in nature but we are getting full-time A-rank pay for it so stop complaining. We can use the extra funds."

"So how will we do this then?" asked Deer, one of the two female captains alongside Crab. "We can't exactly let a baby sleep in the barracks can we?"

"Officially the Hokage gave him apartment 101 of 'The Iceberg', which means that as far as official channels are involved Naruto will be living by himself." Ryu said. "And since he will be a tenant of 'The Iceberg' he is of course allowed to use its public facilities including the library, training rooms, blacksmith and lounge. The barracks themselves and the meeting rooms are off limits however, since those officially don't exist unless you actually join ANBU."

"So he will stay in 'The Iceberg' but he won't actually join ANBU?" Deer asked. "Of course not! He's a baby for crying out loud! In what universe does having a child join ANBU make any sense? He won't just magically become Jonin-level because we train him for a while." Ryu said, while starting to lose his patience with his new captains and their stupid questions.

Everyone thought about that for a bit. 'The Iceberg' was the unofficial nickname of the headquarters of the ANBU forces, named because over two thirds of its content was hidden below the surface. Officially it was just a regular apartment complex owned by the village and overseen by the current Hokage. Unofficially however it housed the living quarters of the ANBU force alongside plenty of training areas and other facilities, most of which were hidden below the surface. Never before had an outsider seen the true inside of The Iceberg, let alone been given a permanent room there. To say they were shocked at the news of their new neighbour would be an understatement.

"Anyway, as for the schedule: each team will be responsible for Naruto for one week before the next team takes over. The order will be: 'team Salamander', 'team Hawk', 'Team Wolf', 'Team deer' and 'Team Crab'. Afterwards Salamander's turn begins again. Since Naruto won't actually arrive for another week Salamander's first task is to make sure apartment 101 is prepared. Any questions?" Ryu gave everyone their orders and his 5 captains left the room to inform their team of the new "mission" they were assigned.

One week later the Hokage entered the Iceberg with a sleeping baby in his arms to take him to his new home. He hoped he made the right decision for Naruto's future. After they left two members of team Hawk entered the room and started their first watch. Little did they know that the ANBU would never be the same again for years to come...

a/n:

Like Ryu already explained to his captains with their stupid questions:

Naruto will not join ANBU! (idk, maybe when he is an adult but definitely not as a 6 year old like other stories do, that's just retarded)

Naruto will not be ridiculously overpowered or Jonin-level at age 12. He will be a decently trained Genin (think on par with Sasuke) and be more "professional" instead of running head first into things. But in raw power he won't fight harder, just smarter. ;)

While this won't be an AU and everything will be canon I do plan to let small changes pile quite high so expect quite some deviation from the regular "Zabuza - chuunin - Sasuke escapes - timeskip" pattern. Though not too big a deviation either.

On that note: the first part of this chapter is what Hiruzen "thinks" happened. He doesn't know about Tobi so he can't talk about him. Before complaining about deviating from canon, that is the reason.

And lastly: I don't plan on using OCs in this story at least not as main characters. Ryu (his codename) is just a necessary evil since Kakashi is to young to be a realistic head of ANBU yet (He is 16 at this point in time) and he also doubles as a plot-device to allow the deviation to happen.

Anyway the next update will be on Monday the 28th of May 2012 at some point during the day.

please R&R


	2. The early years

Note: I do not own Naruto.

I said I'd update next week but you all got me so motivated that I managed to finish my chapter in one instead of two weeks. But don't think it'll be a habit, next chapter is planned in two weeks time (unless enough people motivate me again to work faster)

**Chapter 2: The early years**

It wasn't until a few weeks after the attack that it became apparent that things would never be the same again in the village of Konoha. At first everyone was still too shaken up and didn't quite realize how big the damage really was. But after the initial state of shock subsided they began to see that things they once took for granted were now changed forever.

This was especially true for the ANBU. Not only did their entire chain of command changed almost overnight, they also had to deal with a new neighbour in their headquarters. This neighbour was Naruto Uzumaki, the village's newest jinchuuriki. Since both his parents died in the attack, the orphaned boy was placed under the protection and care of the ANBU. However many ANBU soon found out that taking care of a baby was a whole lot different from their regular line of work. Especially since Naruto seemed to have a near infinite appetite and refused to sleep during the night-hours, opting instead to cry for more food. This drove many of the otherwise highly trained and skilled ninja up the wall and many swore to never have kids of their own after their first shift ended.

But eventually things settled down and soon the ANBU grew accustomed to Naruto's presence in The Iceberg. They even managed to work out a workable schedule where a few volunteers (mostly kunoichi though one silver-haired ANBU in a dog-mask volunteered as well) took after him most of the time. It was agreed that the ANBU who took care of Naruto were allowed to remove their masks during that time and be themselves when they were with the blond. There were three reasons for this: first of all Naruto was frightened by the masks and it was a lot easier to get him calm if they simply removed them, secondly an ANBU walking around town with a baby caught a lot of unwanted attention from potential enemy spies and finally the ANBU themselves liked being normal people for a few hours before going back to their alter ego as faceless soldiers.

The Third Hokage also dropped by for a few hours whenever he was there for "ANBU-business" which happened almost every day, even when most of the time he never even made it to Ryu's office to discuss the things he was supposed to be there for in the first place. Everyone knew better than to comment on this though.

The ANBU however had to stay sharp at all times since the rest of the village did not share their views on the boy. During the first six months alone there were 6 assassination attempts at young Naruto's life: they tried to poison his food on 5 separate occasions and one man was even foolish enough to try to sneak in at night and kill him in his sleep. Tried being the word here since he didn't get very far before the ANBU noticed a civilian sneaking in their own headquarters. These attempts at Naruto's life stopped rather abruptly once the ANBU executed the would-be assassins in public under charges of treason.

After this rough start the next few years went by rather smoothly and Naruto grew quite accustomed to the presence of the ANBU in his flat. His room also changed quite a lot since the first year and now housed a small bed with orange sheets (somehow he slept a lot easier with that colour than others), a desk with several storybooks about ninjas, a closet with his clothes and a small chest with his toys and birthday gifts from the Hokage and the ANBU, who long since stopped seeing Naruto as just a mission and more as part of their family. Especially Kakashi, the ANBU known as Dog, took a liking to the blonde and looked after him a lot more than the rest.

It was on one of these days that Kakashi took care of Naruto.

"How is he doing?" asked Kakashi to Badger once he entered flat 101 to begin his shift. "He's asleep now," grumbled Badger "but he was quite a handful to get into bed. Apparently you promised to take him to the park today. The kid couldn't stop talking about it."

"Heh, sorry about that," said Kakashi while rubbing the back of his head with his left hand "I hope he wasn't too difficult?"

"Nothing I can't handle." said Badger with a smirk, "You on the other hand are about to have quite an eventful day once he wakes up. I hope you aren't too tired from your last mission to the land of Tea, because you will need all the energy you can spare." Badger said while chuckling.

"You didn't?" asked Kakashi with fear in his tone.

"Didn't what?" asked Badger trying to sound innocent and suppressing the smirk that threatened to cover his entire face, "I just promised you'd play ninja with him, that's all." He quickly stood up and ran past Kakashi towards the door. "Have a nice day." he said on the way out while Kakashi cursed his bad karma.

Playing ninja was Naruto's favourite game and since a short while it was also the initiation ritual the ANBU gave to the new recruits. The basic idea of the game was to give young children some basic form of training disguised as a series of games and to keep it up as long as the child remained interested. It was designed in such a way that the older ninja playing with the child had quite a hard workout themselves, that way they could keep up with their own training as well.

It was very popular amongst the clans and many ninja, especially those who had younger brothers or nephews, first frowned at the seemingly easy task of entertaining a kid for an hour or two. The catch however was that unlike other children, who stopped playing after one or two hours, Naruto simply did not grow tired of the game and kept demanding more. And thanks to his unwanted tenant giving him extra stamina and energy, the game could easily last eight to nine hours before he wanted to stop for some ramen. Many rookies were left broken after the first day of playing ninja with the hyperactive blond, not even able to lift a finger, and a few even quit ANBU altogether saying they couldn't take it.

Kakashi sighted and silently cursed once again at Badger's idea of a joke. 'Oh well, better get started then' he thought to himself and went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for the two of them.

"Breakfast is ready!" he shouted towards Naruto's room and a few seconds later the blond boy came running towards the kitchen wearing black pyjamas with the leaf-symbol stitched in white on the back. "Good morning Kakashi." Naruto said to his favourite guardian. "Are we going to the park today and play ninja again?" he asked hopefully.

"Sure Naruto" Kakashi replied, "we'll go right after breakfast so eat up." Kakashi then followed his own advice and ate his breakfast because he had a feeling he'd be needing all the energy he could get.

* * *

After breakfast Naruto got dressed and he and Kakashi went to the park at the edge of the village to spent the day. Because it was a warm summer day the park was crowded with several families -mostly civilian though there were several of the smaller clans as well- who also gathered to enjoy the nice day. Naruto and Kakashi found a nice spot under a tree that wasn't yet taken and soon the little blond ran of to play with the other kids. Kakashi was secretly relieved by this since it meant that Naruto would at least give him some time to relax before he insisted they began the torture-session, as the game was sometimes called in ANBU circles. Smiling at his good fortune he started reading a book of a new series called "icha icha" that just came out and wondered if it would be any good. He only bought it because Jiraiya had written it after all.

Meanwhile Naruto reached the playground in the centre of the park and started playing with the other children. Several of the parents tensed a little at first and kept a close eye on him but the presence of the ANBU kept them at bay so nobody interfered or dared yell insults at Naruto. And after a few minutes of nothing happening even they started to relax a little and decided to let the kids play their games instead of worrying.

Meanwhile Naruto was playing a game of hide and seek and was frantically searching for a good hiding spot while one of the other kids, a boy his age with brown hair and a dog, was counting to one hundred.

'Maybe behind the vendors?' he taught to himself, 'no, that's too obvious.'. He looked around the park some more looking for a good spot until his eyes fell on some bushes and trees at the end of the park. 'Perfect!' he taught to himself and ran of to his new hiding spot.

Eventually Naruto found a decent spot in a tree and tried to stay hidden as good as he could. 'He'll never find me here' he taught to himself and tried to stay silent since he learnt from the ANBU that making sound is the easiest way to give away your location, no matter how good you are hidden. After a few minutes he suddenly heard some commotion behind him and he carefully looked down from his hiding spot. There he saw three young boys around his age surround a small girl with pupil-less lavender eyes and short indigo hair who was being pushed around by them. 'Bullies!' he taught, 'I better help that girl out'.

He carefully moved to the other side of the tree so he could surprise them from above, another trick he picked up from one of the ninja-games, and kept listening to the conversation below.

"Look at those freaky eyes!" the biggest of the boys said, "she must be a Hyuga."

"I bet she is just as arrogant as that Neji guy" his friend said, "All Hyugas are the same."

"Rich girl here probably thinks she is better than us huh?" said the biggest kid, "I bet she thinks we are beneath her." he pushed the girl on her knees and laughed when she started crying.

"No! I-I d-do not think th-that" the girl on the ground said quietly while sobbing, "please! Just l-leave me alone".

"What was that? Leave you alone?" the third guy said, "Are we not worthy enough to be around a mighty Hyuga?".

"I-it's not like that. Th-that's not wh-what I meant." tried the girl on the ground.

"Yeah right! I think the lying bitch needs a lesson." the big kid stepped forward and prepared to slap the defenceless girl on the ground. Suddenly he cried out as he felt a stab of pain coming from his nose and there was blood trickling down his face. "What was that!" he yelled. He noticed the pine cone at his feet and looked up. There he saw a blond kid with blue eyes looking straight at him from one of the trees with another pine cone in his hands.

"Who are you?" asked the biggest kid, while keeping one hand over his now bleeding nose.

"I am Naruto Uzumaki and I am here to kick some ass" yelled Naruto while dropping down from the tree and throwing the second pine cone at the bullies face. "Now let the girl go, you bastards!"

"Boss, are you ok?" asked one of the other kids.

"I'm fine, he just caught me by surprise, that's all. Now go teach that wannabe hero a lesson!"

The two kids seemed to regain their confidence and ran at Naruto ready to beat him up.

"Be careful!" yelled the girl on the ground, who managed to regain her footing now that the two bullies no longer had her pinned down.

Meanwhile the first of the two kids reached Naruto and was about to hit him with a wild punch. Naruto meanwhile remembered the taijutsu lessons Kakashi taught him the last few weeks.

'Always keep a cool head in battle and anticipate you opponents actions.' Naruto remembered Kakashi's words and side-stepped the wild attack so that he was now positioned behind the bully.

'Strike hard and decisive.' Naruto kicked at the bully's legs from behind and watched him crash to the ground.

'Always mind your surroundings.' He quickly spun around and just barely managed to block a punch from the second bully that was behind the first one.

'Use your opponents strength against themselves.' He quickly grabbed the fist that tried punching him and using the bully's momentum threw him around right into his friend knocking both of them out at once.

'Keep your eye on the mission at all times.' He turned around again to look at the girl and came face to face with the biggest bully who was glaring at him.

'If the opponent is on the defensive keep the pressure on and don't give them a chance to recover.' Naruto ran towards the biggest kid and tried to take him down with a combination of punches and kicks he practised earlier.

Unfortunately the third bully was stronger than his friends and, though he lacked style, managed to overpower Naruto with brute force alone and threw him on the ground with a nasty punch in the stomach. "Damn, I forgot the lesson about not being overconfident." Naruto muttered to himself.

He saw the bigger kid move towards him with an evil grin on his face, "You're going to get it now runt! It's payback time for breaking my nose!".

Naruto gulped and tried to find a way out of his predicament until he saw the girl stand up behind the bully with new confidence in her eyes. "Leave him alone." she said without stuttering like she did before.

"Oh yeah? And what are you going to do about it huh?" the bully asked mockingly without even looking at her, a mistake which would cost him dearly.

"I said: leave him alone!" Suddenly the veins around her pupil-less eyes became visible as she lowered her body in a taijutsu stance Naruto had never seen before.

"Eight Trigrams: Sixteen Palms!" the girl shouted while moving gracefully, almost like a dancer, towards the bully's exposed backside. She moved her hands in a blurry and struck his back repeatedly on various parts.

Naruto frowned at the attack. He could tell those hits weren't exactly strong, more like gentle tabs really, and he knew from first-hand experience that the bully could take much stronger punches and remain standing. Imagine his surprise when instead of shrugging the attack off like he expected, the bully's eyes became glassy and he fell forwards with a loud thud. He saw the bigger kid was unconscious. 'How the hell did she do that?' he taught.

"Thank you for helping me" he heard the girl say and turned his head towards her. Her veins had returned to normal though her eyes were still pupil-less.

Naruto gave her a wide grin. "I should be the one thanking you. How did you take out that bully? That was amazing! You must be really strong!" he said excitedly.

The girl blushed heavily at the words of praise but managed to let out a small "thank you".

"So what's your name anyway?" Naruto asked, "I am Naruto."

"Nice to meet you Naruto, I am Hinata Hyuga." the girl replied.

"Nice to meet you too Hinata" Naruto said with his trademark grin. "hey, me and the other kids are playing games in the park now. Would you like to join us?" he stretched his hand out towards her, awaiting her reply.

'He's asking me to play with him! Maybe he wants to be friends?' Hinata taught excitedly to herself. She didn't have many friends and smiled at the idea of playing with other kids so she took his hand, "yes I'd like that." she said. They both ran back to the other kids not realizing two figures were watching them.

* * *

"She is quite impressive for her age. Her father must be proud." Kakashi said to Ko Hyuga, Hinata's guardian.

"To be honest I am as surprised as you are" Ko replied. "She doesn't usually show this much confidence. In fact that was the first time she managed to pull of the 16 palms-attack."

"The first time in a combat situation and she already hit all targets? She must have trained that technique a lot then?" Kakashi said.

"No I mean literally the first time she ever did it. She has never been able to do it successfully before, not even in training." Ko confessed, "I wonder if it was that kid who somehow inspired her to do it."

"mmm, the first time she pulls it off and immediately in a combat scenario." Kakashi pondered, "that certainly is quite peculiar though not unheard of. Apparently Naruto must have left quite the impression on her to inspire such a change of personality."

"Talking about Naruto, he didn't do too bad himself." Ko complimented. "He took the first two down by himself and did quite a number on the third one as well. If the kid wasn't a head bigger than him he would have won. That's quite impressive for a kid his age, which clan does he belong to?"

"He doesn't belong to a clan" Kakashi answered, "he is being raised by the ANBU."

"Oh, I see." Ko replied with a visible shock on his face. "He is that Naruto huh?"

"Yes, he is 'that Naruto'" Kakashi said quite defensively, "is that a problem?"

"Not at all, I was just surprised to see him like this." Ko answered, "After all he has quite the reputation."

"Nothing but rumours and superstition" Kakashi firmly said, "I watched over Naruto his entire life and there is nothing at all wrong with him. He is just a normal kid."

"Well he did came to lady Hinata's help, even when he obviously didn't know who she was. Nor did he treated her differently when he did know." Ko pondered, "Most people wouldn't have jumped into a fight like that. Perhaps I can convince her father to let Hinata play with Naruto more often, after all she does seem to take a liking to the boy." he chuckled while pointing at the two kids who were still playing with each other. Kakashi couldn't help but smile underneath his mask at the sight. After all this was the first time Naruto had a friend his own age. Other kids played with him when they visited the park and some, like that Inuzuka-brat, seemed to genuinely like him. But in the end he never had someone he could truly call a friend. At least not within his own age-group. He really hoped Hinata and Naruto could become friends, at the very least it would hopefully calm him down a bit.

After watching them play for another few hours it was time to go back home. Ko and Kakashi picked them up and after saying goodbye to each other Naruto and Hinata quickly followed their respective guardian.

* * *

Later that night at the Hyuga mansion:

"Are you sure that's what happened?" Hiashi Hyuga, head of the Hyuga clan and father of Hinata asked.

"Yes sir," Ko replied, "Hinata managed to subdue her assailant with the 16-palms technique. I should also mention that he was 2 years older than her and at least a head bigger."

"And you say that Naruto Uzumaki was there as well? Was he one of her attackers?"

"No sir, Naruto did not harass lady Hinata. In fact he went to help her when he accidentally stumbled upon the scene. He took out two other kids that were there as well."

"He did, did he? Interesting... I wonder what the ANBU are doing to that kid, he'll definitely be someone to watch out for later" he chuckled. "But back to my daughter, yesterday you said Hinata couldn't do the technique and insisted she needed more time, yet now you say she successfully implemented it in a combat situation. How do you explain this sudden growth?"

"Permission to speak freely sir?" Ko hesitantly asked knowing he was about to touch a delicate topic.

"Permission granted." Hiashi said while raising his eyebrow.

"As her personal teacher I must say that Hinata definitely has all the talent and skill needed to become a great kunoichi. Her chakra control is excellent and thanks to her agility and flexibility she is perfect for the Gentle Fist – style" Ko started. "However certain aspects of her personality are holding her back."

"What do you mean?" Hashi asked.

"As you know she is quite gentle and rather shy," Ko carefully understated, "Therefore the traditional training-methods aren't really suited for her. She isn't the type that responds well to harsh criticism or direct competition. And some of the elders efforts to 'encourage her' have had the opposite effect I'm afraid."

"Well what do you suggest then?" Hiashi asked "If she doesn't master the training she will automatically be put in the Branch House, you know that."

"I think I have an idea that would greatly help lady Hinata, though it is rather unorthodox." Ko carefully picked his words.

"You can tell me." Hiashi simply stated, not showing anything in his facial expression.

"Today I observed that Naruto had a rather positive effect on her confidence, apparently his rather outgoing personality and his actions in trying to help her inspired lady Hinata to pull of the 16 palms technique when he needed help in turn. His guardian, the ANBU-captain Kakashi, said that Hinata had a similar effect on Naruto and proposed to let them meet more often." Ko stated, "Perhaps letting them train together would help lady Hinata overcome her shyness. If not, getting trained by the ANBU has never hurt anyone. This can only improve her technique."

'She also looks like she really could use a friend, it's not like she has any. Even within the branch house most won't approach her' Ko taught, though never stated out loud.

"You're right," Hiashi said, "it is rather unorthodox. The elders won't like it, that's for sure."

"I understand sir, please forgive me for bothering you." He nodded and turned to leave.

"Then again," Hiashi continued as if Ko never said anything, "they don't like her current progress either. There have been voices of dropping her from the training already. Truth be told I was about to ask the Jonin Kurenai Yuhi to take over her training, but maybe the ANBU are a better idea. Perhaps we should give your idea a fair chance, if you are correct then the end result will surely be worth a small breach of protocol. I'll convince the elders and talk to the Hokage, let's see if this Naruto can really help Hinata get over her shyness."

"Thank you sir" Ko bowed politely and left the room. Once on the hallway he allowed a small smile to appear on his face but quickly suppressed it, Hyuga's were trained to hide their emotions after all.

* * *

A few days later, ANBU headquarters training area 27:

Naruto and Kakashi were busy going over the basic taijutsu exercises again when the Hokage cleared his throat to make his presence known. "Hey old man, did you came to visit me?", Naruto yelled while hugging the Hokage.

"Hello Naruto-kun. How is your training going?" The Hokage asked while returning Naruto's hug.

"He is making steady progress lord Hokage," Kakashi answered in Naruto's place, "His taijutsu is pretty good and he is making great progress in throwing shurikens and kunai as well. He can hit stationary targets with 90% accuracy and moving targets with 40%. But I expect those numbers to go up quite a lot by the time he starts the academy."

"I'm glad to see you are taking your training seriously" the Hokage said.

"Of course, I'll be the next Hokage after all!" Naruto said confidently.

"Will you now? My my, you sure aim high. But let's not get ahead of ourselves shall we? Being Hokage is serious business after all." the Hokage chuckled at Naruto's enthusiasm.

"Anyway, I have an announcement to make." The Hokage said suddenly all serious. "I'm afraid Naruto that you will no longer be able to train one-on-one with Kakashi."

"What! Why?" Naruto shouted with a shock on his face.

"Sir?" Kakashi asked, "I don't mind training Naruto, there is no need to stop the sessions on my behalf."

"Now now, not so fast you two." The Hokage said with a small smile, "remember that a good Shinobi looks underneath the underneath. I never said you had to stop training now did I?"

"Huh?" Naruto said. Because it seemed to him that was exactly what he said.

"I see," Kakashi stated, "you said our one-on-one training-sessions would end, that would imply someone else will be joining us. Now since having two teachers at the same time makes no sense I would have to say you want me to train someone alongside Naruto?"

"Indeed" the Hokage confirmed, "in fact why don't you two meet her right now? She is waiting just outside with her father."

As if on cue Hiashi Hyuga entered the training area with Hinata in tow. The little girl was wondering what they were doing here and why she needed to bring her training outfit with her, 'if father wants to do a training session why can't we do it at home like usual?'

When Naruto spotted Hinata he immediately yelled out to her, "Hey Hinata, are you my new training partner? That's so cool!"

'Training partner?' Hinata taught, 'This can't be right, father would never let me train outside the clan. But why am I here then?'

"So Naruto, is it?" Hiashi said as if he didn't hear the loud shout, "I heard you helped my daughter out the other day? Why don't you tell me some more about that."

Kakashi frowned, he realized Hiashi technically never agreed to the training yet and that he was giving Naruto a character test first before making a decision. Because although he was a strict parent he did care for his daughter and he wanted to be sure she was in good hands. He expected that he would receive a similar test later, though his would be less secretive, it's a lot harder to fool a Jonin than it is a child after all.

Naruto on the other hand saw no harm in this and started talking about their day in the park. Kakashi noted with some amusement that his version of the facts was pretty different than how he remembered it. Naruto said that Hinata was "fighting three kids at once" rather than being bullied by them, and that he "helped her with the first two" instead of knocking them out single-handedly, then "the third guy cheated and knocked me down when I wasn't looking" instead of him being an idiot who ran head first in his fists, he finished with "Hinata defeated him by herself with some really cool attack that totally knocked him out!" well at least that part was sort of correct. Kakashi waited for Naruto to finish up and was surprised when he kept talking. He spent another 10 minutes describing all the games they played later that day in far more detail than the actual fight Hiashi wanted to know about.

In the end though Hiashi just smiled to himself, it was obvious that Naruto and his daughter got along great and if anyone would be able to get her out of her shell it would be him. His face however didn't betray his feelings and it kept its neutral look throughout the entire story.

"So Naruto," he suddenly said, "I take it you will be starting at the academy next year as well?"

"yes sir!" Naruto confirmed.

"Well then, I feel it would be in both your interests if you and Hinata could work together to practice and do your homework. Wouldn't you agree?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"You mean I can train with Hinata after school? That's so awesome." Naruto almost yelled.

'Awesome huh?' Hiashi taught, 'I better make sure he keeps focused on training only, don't want to give the kid ideas about my daughter.'

"That is of course if you can keep up," Hiashi said, "Only the best training-partner is good enough for Hinata."

'And now to really drive the point home' He almost smirked.

"Maybe I should ask that Uchiha-kid instead, he'll probably be rookie of the year" Hiashi pretended to ponder aloud.

"Hell no!" Naruto said, "I'm gonna be rookie of the year, you'll see!"

"Will you now? Well then you better focus on training a lot because if you turn out to be a failure I'll put a stop to these sessions at once, do you understand?" Hiashi said with a stern gaze, he loved to play with people's minds like that.

Naruto gulped and nodded. He was determined not to lose his new training-partner and he vowed to become rookie of the year.

* * *

And so Naruto and Hinata started training together. Hinata's insecurity and shyness that always kept her back quickly disappeared under Naruto's constant praise and Kakashi's rather lax training attitude; he allowed them to fail tasks and simply let them try again until they got it right. This was in dire contrast with the Hyuga's method of demanding absolute perfection and turning everything into a competition with winners and losers that never managed to appeal to Hinata's character.

Naruto started taking his training more seriously as well. Now that he had a partner who was used to discipline and harsh work he could no longer afford to goof around or pull pranks on his teachers. At least not as much as he used to; he did manage to get both himself and Hinata involved in several pranks that ran out of hand and ended in a stern talking to for both of them.

Eventually the months passed and it was time to enter the regular academy. Hiashi's warning was clearly on Naruto's mind, he had to be the very best or else Hinata and him could no longer train together. He took a deep breath and they both walked into their new classroom ready for the biggest adventure of their young life.

a/n: And that is chapter two.

The encounter with the three bullies actually happened in canon as well, but in my version Naruto is better trained and managed to win his fight instead of getting beat up and forcing Ko to step in.

And about Hinata's character: in this universe she wasn't/won't be subjected to years of being humiliated at home. Therefore she won't develop her typical lack of confidence and stutter. She also won't meet Kurenai early in life, instead she will hang out with Naruto and Kakashi for her training.

Next chapter will be part 1 of the academy where a certain Uchiha will battle Naruto for Rookie of the year.

please R&R


	3. The academy

note: I do not own Naruto.

**The Academy**

Naruto and Hinata entered the room of their new class and looked around. The room was already filled with several kids Naruto had seen in the park or on the streets from time to time. Most of them were from civilian families but he also recognized several clan-children by their clan's characteristics. 'A kid with facial markings who brings a little puppy to class? Must be an Inuzuka. A chubby kid who eats potato chips in class? Akimichi. Next to him a dark-haired kid who is sleeping? A Nara. Then the girl with a blonde ponytail who sits next to them must be a Yamanaka.' he reasoned. He also recognized an Aburame. Hinata was a little freaked out about the insects, Naruto didn't particularly care.

"Hey Naruto-kun, you're here as well?" a familiar voice suddenly said behind him. He looked back and saw Itachi Uchiha, one of the ANBU who looked after him from time to time, standing there alongside a smaller version of himself. "You know who this is, brother?" Sasuke asked Itachi.

"Ah yes, let me introduce you two," Itachi said. "Naruto, this is Sasuke, my little brother. Sasuke, meet Naruto, the boy I told you about who lives with the ANBU. And you must be Hinata Hyuga I assume?."

"Yes, I am Hinata, nice to meet you Itachi-san, Sasuke-kun." Hinata replied.

Sasuke however wasn't paying attention to her and instead looked at Naruto. 'So this is the ANBU-kid huh?' he taught. He heard a lot of stories about him: some people like his parents and several civilians said he was trouble and that he should stay away while others like his brother Itachi said he was just a regular kid and even encouraged them to be friends. Seeing him in person he was a little disappointed: by now he expected Naruto to be some sort of mythical figure if all the stories he heard were even remotely true, but it looked like he was a normal kid after all.

"Naruto, Hinata." he nodded politely, he was still an Uchiha after all and he had to hold up the reputation of his clan. Meanwhile Itachi had already left without saying a word, he was a busy ninja after all and he also knew better than to embarrass his baby brother with too much open affection; Uchiha's were a clan of warriors, not a clan that needs someone holding their hand on the first day of school.

"All right everyone!" A voice suddenly shouted. "Pick a seat and sit down." Naruto looked to the front of the class and saw a young man in a Chunin flack-vest and a scar across his face. Next to him was another man with white hair, also with the flack-vest. "I am Iruka" the scarred teacher introduced himself, "and this is my assistant Mizuki. From this day till the day you graduate we will be your teachers. But make no mistake: this is not the civilian school, this is the ninja-academy! All those who are here came here with the sole purpose of becoming a ninja for Konoha". "Some of you will succeed and become the next legends of our village," he continued his speech, "but most of you will either drop out or end up killed within your first year."

Most of the class, especially the kids from civilian origin, gulped at that last statement and looked around nervously. The people from clans however seemed perfectly at ease hearing about getting killed and Naruto, who sat down next to Hinata and Sasuke, didn't flinch either.

"Anyway," Mizuki said next "before we worry about that we shall go outside to the training course to see where everybody stands. Don't worry though: this first session will not count for your report card." he assured them.

"Nonetheless it is a good way to see where you need improvement, so do take it seriously." Iruka looked sternly at Shikamaru who was dozing off in class as he said it.

Once outside everyone stood around the throwing range where Iruka explained the first exercise. It was a simple accuracy test where you threw five kunai and 5 shuriken -dull ones to make sure nobody caused accidents- at a series of targets twenty metres away. You scored points the closer you got to the centre of each for a maximum of 100 points if you landed ten bulls-eyes.

One by one Iruka called each name and that person got forward to throw their weapons at the targets. It was obvious there was already a huge difference between those who had previous experience with throwing weapons and those who didn't: the average civilian scored a low 30 points at best, the kids who came from clans on the other hand did better with an average score of 70. Hinata even scored 90, firmly placing herself as the best female and even in the top 3 in general.

Finally only Sasuke and Naruto remained.

"Sasuke Uchiha" Iruka called amongst a loud murmur when they heard his name. Everyone heard of the legendary Uchiha-clan and now they got to see one of them in action.

Sasuke confidently went forwards and took the weapons, he weighted them in his hands and threw them one by one at the targets like he had done countless times before. "99 points!" Iruka said in disbelief, that was the score you expected on a final exam after months of training, not on the first day of school! Everybody looked at Sasuke in awe and several of the girls started talking very excited amongst themselves while looking at him with little hearts in their eyes.

"Not too bad," Naruto said casually as Sasuke walked back to where he and Hinata were waiting, "but you missed one."

"Hmm, that one kunai must be slightly off-balance then" he remarked. "Naruto Uzumaki, you're up." Iruka said. Naruto casually walked to the range and picked up the kunai and shuriken, as he got ready for the exercise he noticed that nobody was really paying attention to him. Everybody was still hanging around Sasuke. "Good luck Naruto-kun." Hinata, who was the only one looking at Naruto, said. Naruto smiled at her and focused on the exercise. He quickly threw his shuriken and four of his five kunai at the targets. Everyone spun their heads around when they heard nine consecutive thuds and looked in shock at the nine bulls-eyes. Naruto was about to throw his last kunai as well when he stopped at the last second smirked a little and then threw it anyway aiming slightly left of his last target where it impacted the board with a "THUD".

"..." Everyone just looked in shock at what they just saw.

"Well looks like you were right Sasuke-kun," Naruto casually remarked, "that kunai was slightly off-balance. Thanks for the heads-up." He smiled at the young Uchiha.

"No problem," Sasuke recovered himself, "I had to let you win at least one trial right?"

"100 points. Well done Naruto" Iruka managed to say after having recovered from what he just saw. 'Two geniuses in one class? This is going to be interesting.' He taught.

After the targeting exercise they continued towards an obstacle course they had to cross in less than 5 minutes. This time the civilian kids did even worse. Only 6 out of 45 managed to complete it and even then it took them almost 4 minutes on average. The clan-children once again did better and all managed to pass it. Naruto noticed however that the best ones were different kids than in the previous exercise. Shikamaru, who scored an impressive 92 in accuracy, couldn't really be bothered to go all out. He called it "troublesome" and completed the course at a leisurely pace finishing after two minutes and twenty seconds. Kiba on the other hand scored pretty low at targeting, a mere 63, but excelled at the more physical test finishing it in one minute and ten seconds. The rest of them all finished somewhere within that time-frame, even Choji who was pretty "big-boned" as he called it did really well and finished it in two minutes.

Hinata once again scored really high, she demonstrated a high level of agility and never missed a single step. In the end however she missed some of the raw speed and power Kiba had and completed it in only one minute and fifteen seconds. This still placed her safely above Ino's two minutes as the best female however.

Once again only Naruto and Sasuke remained, somehow they suspected Iruka did it on purpose to not discourage the others too much.

"Why don't you go first this time," Sasuke offered with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Thanks!" Naruto smiled.

"No problem." Sasuke smirked a little, "After all a gentleman always lets the ladies go first."

Everyone sniffled at the joke and even Hinata couldn't fully suppress a small smile on her face. Naruto, who could always appreciate a good joke even if he was on the receiving end, had to admit he walked right into that one and focused on the obstacle course instead. There were five obstacles they had to cross: first was a wall of 5 metres with ropes they had to climb over, then a balancing beam suspended over water, a series of ropes they had to swing from, a wooden construct without ropes this time and finally they had to crawl under a series of wires to the finish line without disturbing any of the bells that hang on them.

Naruto was determined to win this round as well and quickly went over, through and under each obstacle at record speed. He wasn't as gracious as Hinata had been and had in fact fallen down once. But in the end he made up for it in raw speed and finished at one minute and three seconds. Sasuke however noticed the part where Naruto had fallen and during his turn made sure to be extra careful when crossing that slippery part of the course, this carefulness paid off since without wasting precious seconds like Naruto had he could go on immediately and finished in 59 seconds.

'Both of them scored really high again, it looks like it's more than a fluke' Iruka taught in disbelief. "very well, let's go to the final test for today" he said while keeping his face straight from the internal shock he was feeling.

The last test was a small taijutsu tournament between everyone, to make things fair and balanced the brackets were divided based on the previous results rather than at random. As such Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata ended up in different brackets and wouldn't meet each other until the semi-final at best. The first few rounds of the tournament were pretty one-sided for our three heroes. Naruto and Sasuke went through the civilian kids like a knife through butter and Hinata, who was physically weaker than most of them, relied on her agility and her superior fighting style to reach the semi-finals as well. Eventually only four people remained: Naruto, Sasuke, Hinata and Choji, who surprised everyone by beating Kiba in the prior round.

"All right everyone," Iruka said to the group, who was now equally divided in fans of Naruto and fans of Sasuke. "The match-ups from here on out will be randomly decided." he declared while running his hand blindly through a box and pulled out a card, "The first contestant is Naruto and his opponent is..." the hand went back in the box and pulled out a second card "Sasuke!"

"This means that Hinata vs Choji will be the other semi-final and the winner of both matches will meet in the final, understood? Okay first match begin!" He shouted the last part.

Sasuke and Naruto where circling each other carefully and waited for the other to make the first move. Finally Naruto was the first to get bored and suddenly rushed ahead to launch the first attack. Sasuke quickly reacted and dodged the first blow by rolling out the way, he then spun around and started counter-attacking. Meanwhile Naruto had steadied himself from his own missed attack and managed to block Sasuke's punch with his forearms. Sasuke kept up the pressure and continued to try and hit him with a flurry of kicks and punches. Naruto managed to block or dodge most of them but some still got through and he soon started sporting some bruises from the impacts. Naruto realized that if this kept up he would have to give up eventually so he decided to start his counter-attack. He waited for an opening and when Sasuke's left side was open after throwing a punch Naruto took his chance and landed a few hard hits on his exposed side. Sasuke jumped back to stop being hit and readied himself for another assault biting through the pain from the hits. Meanwhile Naruto prepared himself as well and both boys ran towards each other at the same time, their fist extended to hit the other with everything they got. They reached each other in the middle and both landed their right fist on the other's face. For a moment everything stood still and the audience, who was cheering them on until now, held their breath. Then the world went dark for them and they both collapsed on the ground.

* * *

"..ake ..p" Naruto heard a small voice through his headache.

"...ake up!" The voice became louder.

"Hey wake up you two!" Iruka's voice was clear now and Naruto opened one eye to see the outline of his teacher in his vision. He grunted and opened his other eye as well while looking around the area. Next to him Sasuke slowly got up as well grabbing his head and cursing under his breath.

"What happened?" Naruto asked.

"You and Sasuke were fighting in the tournament and you got knocked out." Iruka casually answered.

"Oh right, the fight." Naruto suddenly remembered, "So who won?"

"I did!" Hinata said with a smile.

"What?" Naruto and Sasuke asked in unison.

"Well," Iruka said, "you both got knocked out at the same time so neither of you could go on. And Hinata won her match so she was the only one left and won the final by default."

"Oh." They both said rather disappointed that their unofficial competition ended in a tie.

"Anyway," Iruka continued, "now that the first test is over we are done for today. You three can go home now and I'll expect you tomorrow at 8h30 in class."

* * *

For the next few months Naruto and Sasuke continuously tried to surpass the other and soon became the two best students of their class. Hinata still trained with Naruto and various ANBU and her skills, but mostly her self-confidence, kept increasing at an amazing pace. Soon she found herself as the best kunoichi of her class, not that there was much competition for that title, and even started catching up to Naruto and Sasuke as a close third overall.

Despite their bitter and often merciless rivalry during any sort of test, competition, trial or spar the three of them actually became quite good friends. They often hung out together and helped each other when someone had difficulty with a certain subject. As the end of their first year at the academy approached their rivalry to become the number one student went higher than ever, each with their own reasons why they couldn't lose. Finally the time came when Iruka called out their final scores. Already their class had sunk from an original 60 students to a mere 30. Only the clan-children and the best of the civilian ones remained while the others dropped out and transferred to the regular school because they couldn't handle the demanding schedule the academy demanded.

Sasuke, Naruto and Hinata sat at their usual spots waiting patiently for Iruka and Mizuki to call out their scores.

"Let's start with the girls, shall we" Mizuki said holding the list with all their scores in his hand. "Third place for the girls with 85 points is Ino Yamanaka", everyone applauded politely. "Second place with 89 points is Sakura Haruno." he continued. "And the kunoichi of the year with 96 points is Hinata Hyuga". Everyone applauded the three girls, though no one seemed too surprised at the outcome. Hinata's victory was pretty much assured from the beginning. They were much more interested in Naruto's and Sasuke's competition for first place of the boys.

"Now onto the boys." Iruka said. "On the third place with 93 points is Shino Aburame." Everyone once again applauded politely and then held their breath for the big reveal, who would win: Naruto or Sasuke?

"Second place..." Iruka began while looking at the scores. "Huh, that's weird. Mizuki are these numbers accurate?" he suddenly asked his assistant.

"Yes, all the scores are accurate." Mizuki simply stated.

"I see." Iruka said while looking at the paper in his hand.

"Oh come on!" Kiba suddenly shouted, "Don't keep us in suspense like that. Just tell us who won already, I have a bet to win!"

"Allright then." Iruka said. "The first place goes to Sasuke Uchiha..." Naruto hung his head at this news, this meant he failed: Hinata's father wouldn't allow them to train together any more now that he didn't reach first place. "... and Naruto Uzumaki." Iruka continued. Naruto's head snapped back up at this news wondering if he heard it correctly.

"What?" The entire class shouted, "what does that mean? They can't both be on first place? Can they?"

"Yes," Iruka said, "Both Naruto and Sasuke scored 98 points total. So it's a tie. They both got first place." Naruto smiled at this news. Granted it was very unorthodox, the first time in 16 years Iruka said, but shared or not first place was first place. So he and Hinata would be allowed to continue their training. Sasuke had similar hopes. Being first still counts even if you had to share the position, did it? He just hoped his father would see it like that as well.

* * *

Later that night there were several small celebrations in Konoha to congratulate those who passed their first year. Lucky for him Sasuke's father did agree that being first counted even if it was a tie. Well more specifically Sasuke's mother Mikoto said that it still counted and sent a look at her husband that dared him to disagree. He knew better than to argue, so the entire clan was invited to celebrate the success.

On the other side of town the Hyuga's held their own private celebration as well. Naruto and Kakashi were invited to join and both donned their finest kimono for the occasion. Apart from him and Hinata there was a third guest of honour at the party: Hinata's cousin Neji. He also made the top spot in his class and Hiashi insisted, despite some protest from the elders because Neji was a branch-member, that the party was in his honour as well.

Naruto quickly found that he didn't get along well with Neji or most of the Hyuga's for that matter. It seemed that Hinata's kindness and calm nature, which he liked best about her, was not a trait she shared with the rest of her family. Most of the Hyuga's, including Neji, had a serious stick up their ass and an ego the size of the Hokage monument. He always taught Sasuke had a bit of an arrogant streak if he performed really well in a certain task but now he had to reconsider that statement. Sasuke was downright humble compared to some of these guys' claims of "the superiority of the Hyuga clan" and "how lucky he was that he was allowed to train alongside a prodigy of the main house". Even Neji couldn't help but rub in that Naruto had to share his first place position while he was the undisputed best of his class. Luckily Hinata seemed to share his discomfort at the boasting of her family and they even joked about it a few times when the rest of the Hyuga's weren't listening.

Eventually the night came to a close and he and Kakashi returned home. He said they were allowed to rest for the rest of the week and the training sessions would begin again the following week, when they started their second year at the academy. Naruto was a little disappointed when he found out that students at the academy did not get a real vacation like the kids in the regular school. Iruka said that their skills would deteriorate too much if they didn't practice regularly. He explained that missions and enemies didn't stop because it was a holiday so ninjas had to get used to working around the year and they started this philosophy in the academy.

* * *

After their week off the students returned to the academy for their second year. Mostly things continued on as usual with Naruto and Sasuke constantly trying to one-up the other in every test, spar or training exercise. Hinata kept improving as well and soon secured her third place and then slowly began catching up until she eventually started winning several of the unofficial competitions as well.

Eventually they also started on their first ninjutsu-lessons. Naruto started fantasizing about breathing fire or summoning lightning and was thoroughly disappointed when Iruka started with a theoretical lesson about chakra theory and how to mould and gather it. He was even more disappointed when he said the only jutsus they would learn in the academy were the transformation jutsu, the substitution jutsu and the clone jutsu. The other jutsus were only available once they actually became Genin, since they didn't want to just let anyone have access to destructive techniques.

He quickly discovered two facts. One he had a lot of chakra, even more than Iruka had apparently. But as a result of this his actual control, which according to Mizuki was more important than just having raw chakra-reserves, was the worst of the class. He compared it to trying to fill a teaspoon with a bathtub of water, he was more likely to wash the entire spoon away than come anywhere close to the impossibly small amount he needed to isolate. Luckily Kakashi foresaw that this might become a problem so he started working Naruto on the leaf-balancing exercise every day until, after a few weeks of improving his control, he managed to isolate enough of his reserves to use the transformation jutsu and the substitution jutsu without too much trouble. The clone jutsu remained difficult though and he could only do it when he was extremely concentrated. Kakashi simply said that he should keep on improving his chakra control until it was good enough.

* * *

8 months into their second year:

"Hey, Hinata have you seen Sasuke today?" Naruto asked his friend.

"No, it looks like he didn't show up." Hinata answered.

"You think he is sick?" Naruto asked.

"Maybe, we should visit him after class then."

"Or perhaps it has something to do with all the commotion last night" Naruto said.

"What do you mean?" Hinata asked since she hadn't heard of anything happening last night.

"Well last night there was a general alarm in the ANBU-headquarters," Naruto explained, "they summoned every available ANBU to the mission room. Apparently something really big must have happened. For a minute I taught Konoha was invaded or something."

"Really?" Hinata asked in surprise. She already learnt a few things about how the ANBU worked and a general alarm was only issued for the most important events. "Perhaps we can ask Kakashi-sensei later?"

"I doubt it," Naruto said, "if it's secret ANBU-stuff he won't talk. Not even to us."

"yeah I guess," Hinata said, "Oh look Iruka-sensei is finally here."

Iruka had indeed entered the classroom with a defeated look on his face. The entire class noticed something was up when instead of Mizuki it was the director of the school who entered the classroom alongside Iruka. Even Shikamaru opened his eyes and started paying attention. "Attention everyone," the director started, "classes have been dismissed for the rest of the week. Your parents have been notified and they will come pick you up shortly."

The kids started talking amongst themselves until Sakura raised her hand and asked the question on everyone's lips. "What happened? Why are classes cancelled?"

Iruka looked at the director asking a silent question to which the director gave a short nod. "Last night," Iruka began, "the Uchiha-clan has been massacred inside their compound by an unknown assailant."

The entire classroom exploded at that statement, everyone started talking and bombarded Iruka and the director with several questions until Naruto asked the one they all needed to know. "Is Sasuke okay?"

"Sasuke is alive," the director said to everyone's relief, "but he is in a coma and is now being monitored at the hospital. So far he is the only known survivor." Before the kids could ask other questions the director excused himself and left the room, he was going to have to repeat this talk with the other classes as well and did not look forward to it.

When they left the school Naruto and Hinata were awaited by Ko and Kakashi, who looked like he hadn't slept at all last night. "Since you are his friends the Hokage allowed you to visit Sasuke." Kakashi said. "Follow me."

"Your father has agreed, lady Hinata" Ko said with a sympathetic smile.

The three of them followed Kakashi to the hospital and they walked into a secure ward until they arrived at a door guarded by three ANBU. Inside Sasuke was lying on a bed, his eyes were open but they looked glassy and he didn't respond to anything. The Hokage was standing next to the bed talking to a doctor "As you can see this isn't a regular coma." the doctor said. "physically speaking he is perfectly fine and a Yamanaka confirmed that he does show signs of normal brain activity, something a regular coma-patient doesn't have."

"So what do you think this is then?" The Hokage asked.

"It looks like he is trapped in a genjutsu," the doctor answered, "but we never saw anything this strong. Not even the Kurama-clan has any idea what caused this or how to undo it."

"Any ideas how to get him out of it?"

"no, only someone like lady Tsunade could break through a case like this." The doctor said in defeat.

"So what does that mean exactly? He will be like this forever?" The Third asked worried.

"no," the doctor explained, "the technique, though extremely powerful, is sill limited by its initial chakra supply which is slowly running out. After a while it will start to lose power and he will wake up himself, but that could very well take a few weeks at this point."

meanwhile Naruto and Hinata had entered the room and stood by Sasuke's motionless body. Hinata was softly crying at the sight of their friend in such a state and Naruto put his arm around her shoulder to try and calm her down. In the meantime he subconsciously reached for Sasuke's hand for his own emotional support when he felt a sudden pulse emanating from his stomach before the world went black.

Everyone watched in horror as Naruto suddenly dropped to the floor, his eyes just as glassy as Sasuke's. Hinata lost all self-control and started crying loudly when her other friend collapsed as well. Ko immediately rushed over to calm her down while Kakashi went to Naruto. He lifted his shirt and saw to his horror that the seal on his stomach was fully activated.

"Does that mean what I think it means?" he asked the Hokage who was kneeling besides him studying the seal.

"I'm afraid so, the seal responded to the technique and dragged Naruto inside the genjutsu." the Third said.

"So now what?" Kakashi asked.

"With Naruto in there as well the technique will burn through its reserves a lot faster, especially if it wants to compensate for his..." he looked at Hinata, who was still crying but paid attention nonetheless, "...unusual condition." he finished. "At the very least they aren't alone, they can support each other now." the Third said, "we can only wait and trust them to make it out of their own at this point."

* * *

inside the mindscape:

Naruto woke up inside the Uchiha-district at the middle of the night. He started wandering the empty streets until he heard a deafening scream further ahead. He rushed over and saw Itachi Uchiha going through the district killing everyone he met while Sasuke was strapped to a cross being forced to watch the scene replay itself over and over while he was crying and begged his brother to stop.

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled at his friend who suddenly looked up at the person who yelled his name.

"Na-Naruto? Is that really you?" he asked with his eyes still red from crying.

"Yes, I'll get yo down from there." Naruto said, "don't move."

Sasuke suddenly started laughing, slowly at first but then he let everything out. "Don't move," he said to no one in particular, "I'm trapped and immobile and he tells me not to move!" Sasuke kept laughing. He knew it was stupid, he knew he shouldn't be laughing right now but he just couldn't help it. His mind was too tired and tormented to make sense any more so he just let out everything without caring about the situation.

Meanwhile Naruto was standing behind him looking at the cross and cursed a little, apparently getting Sasuke free wasn't as easy as he taught it would be. The world he found himself in didn't play by the rules. For one he never saw anything that kept Sasuke trapped in the first place, for all he could see the cross was an illusion itself. Thinking about what they learned in the academy about dispelling genjutsu, because it was a genjutsu that much he could detect, he tried to mould his chakra and let it out in a pulse.

"release!" he shouted. He taught he saw the world flicker for a bit but it ended as soon as it started and he once again looked at the Uchiha-district at night. He tried again but this time the world didn't even flicker when he released his chakra.

"Naruto, what are you doing? Get me down from here already!" Sasuke shouted.

"I'm trying dammit, but I can't seem to break through this illusion. They never let us practice on one this strong at the academy!" Naruto shouted back.

"okay okay, now let's focus. What does the manual say when you can't dispel it yourself?" Sasuke seemed to regain his composure.

"If you find yourself trapped in an illusion you cannot break out of you can dispel it by having an ally enter his chakra in your system, the outside flow will disturb the genjutsu's own flow and dispel it." Naruto droned the lesson he learned from Iruka.

"Let's try that, pour your chakra in my body and it should release me." Sasuke said. Naruto nodded and placed his hand on Sasuke's back, he poured some of his chakra in his friends body and to their relief it seemed to work as the cross he was hung up on suddenly disappeared and Sasuke fell down.

"Allright it worked!" Naruto shouted.

"Not really," Sasuke pointed out "we got rid of the cross but we are still inside this illusion as a whole."

Naruto looked around and noticed that they were indeed still inside the Uchiha-district where Itachi kept going through the motions as if nothing happened. He even stopped to talk at the now empty cross, apparantly not realizing his brother has been freed. "He must have left you with nothing but a pre-recorded message," Naruto reasoned , "without him here to adjust to changes the illusion can't adapt and keeps on playing the same scene again and again."

"But how do we break it?" Sasuke asked.

"Well I tried dispelling it before and it seemed to work for a second." Naruto pondered, "Maybe if we both try at the same time we can break through it."

They both focussed their chakra and released it at the same time. "Release!" The world around them flickered again and for half a second they found themselves in what appeared to be a sewer. They saw a set of eyes looking up at them from behind a giant cage before they were suddenly thrown back into the illusion of the Uchiha-compound.

"What was that?" they both asked at the same time. "Did it work or not? And what was that sewer about?" Suddenly the world around them started shaking as if a giant earthquake hit Konoha. They looked up and saw that the very sky started cracking open and red tendrils made of chakra poured inside the illusion destroying it from the inside out. The world started flickering again, as if the illusion refused to be dispelled but soon the chakra tendrils broke completely through and the world crumbled to pieces under the strain.

Naruto and Sasuke found themselves being thrown inside the sewer again and looked up to see all the chakra tendrils retreat into the cage they came from. They gasped as they saw who their rescuer was. Before them in all its glory stood an enormous fox with nine distinct tails swinging behind him looking down at the two of them.

"**And ****what ****do ****we ****have ****here?****" **his booming voice filled the room. **"****Does ****my ****host ****finally ****grant ****me ****a ****visit?****" **he chuckled before looking at Sasuke. "**An ****Uchiha!****" **the fox suddenly roared, **"****What ****is ****a ****member ****of ****that ****accursed ****clan ****doing ****here?****" **he demanded.

"What are you talking about?" Naruto shouted back, "who are you and what are you doing here? Are we still under the genjutsu?"

The giant fox started laughing. **"****Sure, ****I'll ****tell ****you ****everything. ****Now ****why ****don't ****you ****remove ****that ****seal ****over ****there,****" **he pointed to a piece of paper on the gate with the kanji for seal on it **"****so ****we ****can ****talk ****more ****freely, ****huh?****"**

"Do you think we are stupid?" Sasuke suddenly interrupted, "We aren't going to release you! You're obviously a demon!"

"**Hah! ****At ****least ****one ****of ****you ****has ****a ****brain!****"** the Fox said.

"Just answer our questions dammit!" Naruto snapped, "who are you and what are you doing here."

"**You ****mean ****you ****really ****don't ****know?****" **the Fox asked incredulous, **"****Surely ****your ****Hokage ****must ****have ****told ****you ****who ****you ****are?**** Why do you think you heal so fast? Or why you have such outrageous chakra reserves for a human****?****"**

Sasuke curiosity was peeked now, he did always wonder how Naruto, supposedly a clanless orphan, was so good or had so much chakra.

"Stop playing games and tell us what you know" Naruto demanded again.

"**You got guts kid, I like that. Very ****well ****then,****" **the Fox said, **"****I'll ****humour ****you ****once. ****I ****am ****the ****Kyuubi, ****the ****nine-tailed ****demon ****Fox ****and ****greatest ****of ****all ****the ****demons!****"**

"Kyuubi?" Naruto and Sasuke shouted in disbelief, "But that can't be. You're dead!"

"**Of ****course ****I ****am the ****Kyuubi!****" **the fox roared, displeased that they wouldn't believe him, **"****How ****many ****other ****giant ****foxes ****with ****nine ****tails ****do ****you ****know ****of?****"**

"But why are you alive? Didn't the Fourth Hokage kill you eight years ago?" Sasuke asked.

"**You ****idiots! ****You ****cannot ****kill ****a ****demon ****for ****I ****am ****immortal! ****Even ****if ****I ****am ****defeated ****I ****would ****simply ****reform ****myself ****over ****time****" **The Kyuubi said quite proudly.

"Then what are you doing here?" Naruto asked, "and why did you save us?"

"**I ****grow ****tired ****of ****your ****questions.****" **The Kyuubi said, **"****ask ****that ****leader ****of ****yours, ****he ****knows ****the ****answers. ****And ****as ****for ****why ****I ****saved ****you ****two? ****Let's ****just ****say ****you ****are ****useless ****to ****me ****as ****a ****brain-dead ****puppet. ****Now ****leave ****me ****alone.****" **The fox laid its head down and started to rest.

Naruto and Sasuke seemed unsure of what to do and decided to try and wake up.

Suddenly Naruto started blinking and looked up at the white ceiling of the hospital, he groaned and slowly stood up from the bed and looked around. Next to him Sasuke started waking up as well, but unlike Naruto he seemed to have more difficulty orienting himself.

"You're awake!" the two of them suddenly found themself tightly embraced by a crying Hinata, "I was so worried about you."

"Hinata, stop hugging so tight, I can't breath!" Sasuke said, while his face started colouring purple. Hinata let go of them and merely smiled seeing them move again.

"Naruto, Sasuke, I'm glad to see you two are fine." The voice of the Hokage suddenly interrupted, "would you mind telling us what happened?"

Sasuke started talking about everything that happened the night before, how Itachi killed the clan and had a "weird sharingan I never saw before", and then placed him in an illusion where he had to watch his clan being killed all over again until Naruto suddenly appeared.

Naruto took over and discussed how he managed to free Sasuke. The Hokage listened intently but his face paled when Naruto finally said the one thing he was afraid of: "... and he said he was the Kyuubi, but why was the Kyuubi there and why did he save us? He said you knew the answer."

Kakashi and the Hokage looked at each other not sure what to do while Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata, who heard everything, looked at them with a questioning look. "This isn't the time and place to discuss this." the Hokage finally said, "come to my office tomorrow and I'll explain everything. In the meantime you two should rest..." he pointed at Naruto and Sasuke who were finally beginning to feel how tired their bodies were, "...and you should return to your family, they must be worried as well." he said to Hinata.

The three of them nodded and the Hokage left the room, he had a lot of explaining to do tomorrow and he did not look forward to it.

* * *

A/n:

Our nine-tailed friend makes himself known at last. How will they react to this news? WIll Sasuke be okay? Does Kakashi still read porn? all these questions will be answered in the next chapter which as usual will appear on monday two weeks from now.

For those wondering about Sasuke's non-emo attitude: the majority of this chapter takes place prior to the Uchiha-clan massacre so canon says he was still a normal kid at that point in time and since Itachi speaks highly of Naruto it is not far-fetched that they would start hanging out IMHO.

But his emotional problems will be addressed next chapter, though with Naruto as a friend to support him he will not go full emo on us like he did in canon.

Anyway next chapter is the Genin exam and team distributions. You will also see the first real techniques showing up.

please R&R


	4. Graduation day

Note: I don't own Naruto.

**Graduation day**

After they were cleared from the hospital Sasuke and Naruto, alongside Hinata, her father and Kakashi found themselves in the Hokage's office.

"Were do I begin?" the Third asked no one in particular.

"Tell me," he suddenly said, "what do you three know about the Kyuubi attack?"

"The Kyuubi attacked Konoha eight years ago on the tenth of October." Hinata said.

"It appeared out of nowhere and did a lot of damage. Many people died that day." Sasuke continued.

"But eventually the Fourth Hokage entered the fight and killed it, though he himself didn't survive either." Naruto finished.

The Third Hokage gave a small smile, "It's good to see that you paid attention during history as well. But unfortunately what you just said isn't entirely correct."

"You see, the Kyuubi isn't dead." Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke looked in shock when he said that 'Not dead! How is that possible?' they each thought.

"The truth is that you can't kill a tailed beast," The Third continued, "especially one as strong as Kyuubi. Because even if the Fourth would have destroyed it, it wouldn't be really dead. Tailed beasts have been killed before and every time they reformed themselves after a few years. Had he killed Kyuubi back then it would have been back now and free to attack villages again."

'Kyuubi did say something similar' Naruto thought.

"So what did happen that night then?" Hinata asked.

"That is were Naruto comes in." The Third said. "You see, tailed beasts cannot be killed, but they can be sealed away. The Fourth used a special sealing jutsu and sealed Kyuubi inside a newborn, because only a child can handle the sealing process. A grown man, with developed chakra cores, cannot handle a new foreign source of chakra being entered directly into his system. In fact the Gentle Fist style is based around that, I believe?" Hiashi merely nodded.

"So on with the story," The Third said, "as I said, the Fourth sealed Kyuubi inside a newborn. He sealed it inside Naruto."

Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke looked wide-eyed at this news. They already suspected it as the story went along but to hear it spelled out like this was still something else.

"What!" Naruto yelled, "why me?"

"There were several reasons." The Third said. "For one, the younger the child, the safer it is and you were literally only hours old. But most importantly though it was because you are an Uzumaki."

"Because I am an Uzumaki?" Naruto asked? "What does that have to do with it?"

"What do you know about your clan?" The Third asked.

"Kakashi said the Uzumakis came from Whirlpool and that they were pretty important there but they got wiped out in the Second Shinobi War. My mother was in Konoha at the time so she survived and became a Leaf-nin. However she died the day I was born during the Kyuubi attack." Naruto said the bits and pieces he found out from Kakashi.

"Yes, that is mostly correct." the Third nodded, "But for security reasons we held back certain parts until now."

"What!" Naruto shouted, feeling hurt "Why would you do that? Don't I deserve to know where I came from?"

"I didn't mean to hide it from you Naruto" Kakashi apologized, "but what you are about to hear is pretty big news. And you weren't ready yet to face it. I only did it to protect you."

"Does it involve the Kyuubi?" Hinata asked, "and the reason being an Uzumaki was important enough to choose Naruto?"

"Yes" The Third said. "You see, the Kyuubi did not just randomly attacked one day as we told you in the academy."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked in confusion.

"The truth is that Kyuubi has been in Konoha's possession for over 60 years now."

Everyone, even Hiashi and Kakashi looked shocked at that statement. 'How could such a secret have been hidden all this time?' The head of the Hyuga-clan taught.

"You aren't the first jinchuuriki we have Naruto." The Third continued, "in fact you are the third one who successfully held Kyuubi for a long period. And just like you, the previous two have all been Uzumakis. There is something in your blood, call it a bloodline if you will, that suppresses demonic chakra and adapts to it. Until now only an Uzumaki has been able to hold back Kyuubi successfully. Anyone else, and many have tried over the years, died after a few months."

"Wait a minute!" Hinata suddenly interjected, "You said the previous jinchuuriki was an Uzumaki, but Naruto's mother was the only one who survived. Does that mean his mother was the jinchuuriki?"

"Yes", the Third said sadly, "eight years ago the unthinkable happened. During your birth the seal weakened and Kyuubi escaped, killing your mother in the process. Luckily the Fourth anticipated this might happen and we moved her far out of the village to give birth. I don't dare think what would have happened had Kyuubi escaped inside the village. The outside attack was bad enough already, an inside one would have levelled everything!"

Naruto looked very quiet 'My mother was a jinchuuriki like me? And Kyuubi killed her?'

"There is one last thing." The Third said."I might as well tell you about your father too."

"My father?" Naruto asked.

"You have to understand, that even after I tell you, this cannot leave this room." The Third insisted while looking at Hiashi directly. "Your father had a lot of powerful enemies and if they knew you are his son they might even start a war for it."

Naruto was even more curious now 'who could be that dangerous that people would wage war if they knew I was his son?'

"Your father was Minato Namikaze." The Third said.

"What!" Hiashi suddenly broke character and yelled at hearing this news, "are you telling me Naruto is the son of the Fourth Hokage?"

"Surely you realise the consequences if news like this were to spread, do you?" the Third asked coldly, "Naruto will not inherit his family-title until he is old and strong enough to protect himself from all those who would attack him. Revealing this news, even in good intentions, could have him killed!"

"But why?" Naruto asked confused, "I taught my dad was a hero? Everyone loves him, don't they?"

"Sensei may be considered a hero in the land of Fire," Kakashi said, "but to our enemies he was known as an S-rank threat and one who killed many of their loved ones. If the Rock-village found out that he had a son they would send professional assassins after you. Not even the ANBU would be able to protect you from all of them."

"Indeed" The Third said, "this news carries a large responsibility. One you aren't ready to face yet."

"And on that note, I would suggest you watch your tongue." Hiashi suddenly said harshly towards Naruto, "just now you accidentally called the Fourth 'my dad'. People pick these things up and you'll end up jeopardising yourself with your carelessness!"

The Third nodded "Indeed Naruto, it would be prudent to never refer to the Fourth as your father, even when you think you are alone."

Naruto nodded that he understood and the Third smiled before turning towards Sasuke "Now then, Sasuke how are you feeling? Losing your family must not be easy for you?"

Sasuke said he was feeling fine but the Third could see he was having trouble dealing with all that happened and decided that the boy needed help. "Sasuke, you don't have to do this alone." The Third said. "I am going to set you up with a counsellor to help you deal with this trauma. Even the greatest ninjas need someone to talk to after things like this happen."

Sasuke nodded, he was secretly relieved he could talk to someone without having to make the first step since he was taught that Uchihas didn't need help from outsiders. But this way he could allow himself some comfort and later claim it was an order from the Hokage. He knew it wasn't healthy to reason like that, but he was raised like that from birth and old habits die hard.

"Good," The Third said, "now what shall we do about your living arrangements? I can't let a child live by himself and we can't send you to an orphanage either at your age."

"Hey I know!" Naruto said, "the room next to mine is empty, why can't he stay there?"

The Third looked at Kakashi who simply shrugged as if to say 'why not?'.

"Very well then," The Third said, "I'll see to it that room 102 gets appointed to Sasuke. In the meantime the Uchiha district will be closed down and sealed up to prevent anyone from damaging it or stealing from the buildings." After that the Hokage ended the meeting and contacted Yamanaka Inoichi to start Sasuke's counselling.

* * *

After the Uchiha-massacre Sasuke moved in room 102 of the Iceberg and was soon invited to join Naruto's and Hinata's training sessions with their various instructors. After some months Kakashi was promoted to commander of ANBU when Ryu retired and removed his mask permanently. Since his new position came with more work and responsibility he only had time to train them once a week so the three of them soon met many different trainers to work with them. There was Yuugao Uzuki who taught them basic kenjutsu, Yamato who trained them the basic ninjutsu of each element, Kage who trained them in stealth and evasion, Towa, who was a taijutsu specialist and his partner Komachi who specialised in throwing weapons.

Eventually the months became years and the three of them managed to stay in the top spot of their class even when their classmates started picking up their own training sessions as well. Nowadays a simple class tournament became a sight to behold once their classmates started using specialized clan-techniques as well. Instead of simple punches and kicks you had to dodge Human Boulders from Choji, "fang over fangs" from Kiba, poisonous flowers from Ino and Sakura (who trained alongside her friend Ino at the Yamanaka house) and insect domes from Shino.

But despite these new tricks, which Naruto could confirm hurt a lot if you didn't manage to dodge them in time, it was always either Sasuke, Naruto or Hinata who won the tournament in the end.

* * *

Hokage's office: one year before graduation.

"Ah Kakashi come in." The Third said.

"So what did you wanted to speak to me about?"

"It's about Naruto's training." Kakashi said. "Lately we have gone as far as we can reasonably go with academy students. Nowadays they mostly just do standard exercises for better control and repeat the techniques they already know. But only having them a few hours each week limits what we can teach them."

"What are you saying?" The Third asked.

"I think all three of them are ready to take the Genin exam early and get a real sensei." Kakashi said.

"You think they are ready for it?" The Third asked, "taking the exam early isn't usually done, you know."

"I was already in the field at their age" Kakashi said.

"That was in wartime," the Third countered "we got rid of that practice because too many graduated before they were truly ready. You of all people should know that."

"I'm aware of that." Kakashi said, "nonetheless I repeat that I think they are ready. They have good taijutsu, good shuriken-control and they each know some basic jutsus from their preferred element. Even compared to people a year older than them they have what it takes to graduate."

"And what about the basics?" The Third asked, "Iruka's report says that Naruto still struggles with a simple clone."

"Naruto's problem is that he has too much chakra. He doesn't know what to do with it and things like creating just one clone is too precise for him. He always overloads the technique and ends up destroying the clone with the pressure he builds up." Kakashi stated, "That's hardly a sign of weakness."

"Perhaps, but the rules cannot be changed." The Third said, "The exam will feature the clone jutsu and right now he cannot pass it. I cannot allow exceptions or I'll never hear the end of it."

"I thought about that." Kakashi responded. "I was thinking of teaching him the Shadow Clone-jutsu instead."

"Shadow clones?" The Third raised his eyebrow, "That's a forbidden technique."

"It's not forbidden because it's immoral or unethical, nor is it a big village secret that can't spread." Kakashi simply shrugged, "It's just too dangerous for people with low chakra reserves since they can end up draining themselves and even die. But I can assure you that Naruto will not have problems with the chakra-requirements. If anything he will find this technique easier since it doesn't demand precise amounts of chakra and overloading it will only cause more clones to appear than intended instead of shutting it down completely."

"We still need permission from the council to grant an exception to the rules." The Third stated.

"Hiashi isn't going to vote against his own daughter and the rest of the clans won't dare cross the Hyuga. And Sasuke is pretty popular with the civilians so they'll agree as well. Naruto will just have to hitch a ride on their popularity: they can't single him out if we apply all three of them in the same form. I'll even sponsor the decision so he gets the backing of the ANBU."

"Speaking about Sasuke, how is his mental state? Has he dealt with his parents loss?"

"The first few weeks were pretty hard. For a while he was obsessed with revenge in an unhealthy way." Kakashi admitted, "but the counselling and Naruto's influence has helped him deal with it. He still wants revenge for his family of course, but he learned to place it and isn't obsessed with it any more. I'd say we were lucky Naruto accidentally broke the Genjutsu so soon, if he were trapped in there for a month instead of just a day chances are he'd be a revenge-obsessed emo."

"Thank Kami that didn't happen!" the Third said and he and Kakashi laughed at the idea of Sasuke ending up as an emo. "But all right. I'll push it through the council, you just make sure Naruto can do the clones. He still has to actually pass the test."

"Thank you lord Hokage." Kakashi said and left the office with a bow.

* * *

As predicted by Kakashi once Hiashi Hyuga openly supported the application (and why wouldn't he support his own daughter?) the rest of the clans didn't dare protest against it (and by extension the Hyuga clan). And so two weeks later Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata entered the Genin exam one year earlier than they normally would.

"Uzumaki Naruto." The instructor said, "you're up next."

Naruto entered the examination room and looked at the two Chunin-instructors from the year above him sitting across from him before a desk filled with Konoha headbands. "Allright," the instructor said after scribbling some notes in a file, "please show us the transformation jutsu. Transform into... the Hokage would you?"

Naruto nodded and gathered his chakra. Soon there was a small "POOF!" and when the residual smoke cleared Naruto was replaced by a spitting image of The Fourth Hokage in his official robes who couldn't help but show a foxy grin "You never said which Hokage so I hope this is okay?"he said with a smile.

The instructor didn't seem upset and merely asked Naruto to turn around so he could see the transformation from all angles. "All right, I don't see any real errors. The transformation is adequate enough to pass. Next up is the Replacement-Jutsu. I will throw this ball at your face, you have to dodge it by replacing yourself with that mannequin over there." He pointed to a mannequin on the other side of the room before quickly throwing the ball hard at Naruto's face. Naruto however was prepared and managed to replace himself just in time as the ball hit the mannequin that now stood in his former position.

"Very good reflexes." his would-be-assailant commented, "The Replacement-Jutsu is also a pass."

"Finally it's the clone jutsu," he said, "in order to pass you need to make a minimum of three clones. Only clones which are good enough to fool me count, so no half-formed monstrosities."

Naruto nodded and went through the hand-signs, however both instructors were very surprised when he ended in a cross rather than a Ram-sign. "Your hand-signs are wrong, you fa..." was as far as he got when the room suddenly filled with 50 copies of Naruto all grinning from ear to ear.

"You were saying?" they all asked at the same time.

His only answer was a headband being thrown at one of the clones. Naruto placed it on his forehead and proudly left the room where Hinata and Sasuke, who both already passed earlier, were waiting for him.

"Naruto you passed!" Hinata said with a smile.

"Congratulations." Sasuke merely said before the three of them went off to celebrate.

"So, do you think we'll be on the same team?" Hinata asked Sasuke and Naruto. "I hope so, how do they divide the teams anyway?"

"Kakashi explained it once." Naruto said, "Tonight the Hokage and all the Jonins come together with a list of all those that passed and the teams are divided. They have a tradition of putting the first and the last together in the same team. Apart from that they divide the teams with what they thinks work best. Sometimes it's because they complement each other skills like putting a taijutsu-expert together with a genjutsu-expert or if similar teams have performed well in the past they'll try to re-enact them."

"Like how my clan always worked great with the Inuzuka or the Aburame to form scouting teams." Hinata said, "Wait, now that you mention it, many of my cousins do have either an Inuzuka or an Aburame as partner."

"Well luckily we graduated sooner or else you might have ended up with Kiba and Shino." Sasuke said while laughing.

Hinata shuddered at the thought of being team-mates with Shino. She had nothing against the boy, he was even quite nice to talk to, but he still had all those bugs and it made her uncomfortable.

"And what about the 2 boys, 1 girl ratio? Why is that?" Sasuke asked.

"It's not like they do it on purpose." Naruto said, "It's just a side-effect of balancing things out. Most male ninja do tend to specialise in combat-oriented skills while most females have mostly support-skills. Combine that with there being twice as much shinobis as kunoichis and it's almost impossible to make teams that don't fall in this mould. But there are exceptions: like the famous ino-shika-cho team, they were all male."

Meanwhile they arrived at the iceberg and the three of them went straight to the lounge. None of the present ANBU looked up any more; since Naruto and Sasuke lived there they had every right to be there.

"So what are the odds they'll put us together then?" Hinata asked again.

"Well I don't think we made either first or last place, so we won't be put on that team automatically." Naruto reasoned, "I guess it all comes down to whether they think we can work well together. But seeing as we train together and we never really met the other people in that class it would be reasonable to assume they will place us in the same team. At least I hope so."

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see." Hinata said, "anyway I'm going home. I have to inform my father that I graduated."

* * *

The following day Sasuke and Naruto left together to the academy, on the way they met Hinata, who was walking with her cousin Neji. Neji acted just as arrogant as Naruto remembered him and Hinata was all too glad her friends showed up before he drove her mad. Later they entered the room reserved for those who had graduated and waited to see on which team they would be placed.

"Hey, I've never seen you three before." a girl with a pink dress and two buns in her hair said. "You sure you're in the right class?"

"We used to be in the year below." Hinata explained, "but we managed to take the exam early and graduated alongside your class."

"I see," the girl said, "my name is Tenten. What's yours?"

"Hinata Hyuga."

"Naruto Uzumaki."

"Sasuke Uchiha."

"Yosh!" A loud voice suddenly erupted next to them, "I am Rock Lee! Nice to meet you Hyuga-san, Uzumaki-san and Uchiha-san. You must have worked really hard to be able to graduate early! I myself will also prove that the power of hard work is enough to be a ninja!"

"Lee, stop scaring our new classmates." Tenten said dryly.

Lee wanted to protest that but at that moment the Chunin who took their exam the day before entered the room with a clipboard and everybody suddenly became very nervous. They all knew that they would now be paired up with their teammates, something that would decide their future for years to come. Everyone crossed their fingers hoping to be placed with a certain person of their class or hoping to avoid a certain person instead. The suspense hung thick as mist in the air.

"All right, listen up." The Chunin said "I will now divide you into three-man teams and inform you who your sensei is, he will then pick you up within the next hour and take it from there. Now team 1 is..." He then went over a list of people Naruto didn't know until finally "Team seven will be: Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuga and Sasuke Uchiha. Your Jonin-sensei will be Maito Gai." The three of them cheered, they were glad they were placed on the same team after all. They were so thrilled they didn't even hear who was put into team eight and missed the introduction of team nine as well. "... Tenten, Hyuga Neji and Rock lee will be team nine with Hayate Gekko as Jonin-sensei."

"So our sensei will be Maito Gai, huh?" Naruto pondered, "Why does that name sound familiar? And why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

"You must have heard my eternal rival Kakashi talk about me!" A loud voice suddenly boomed through the class as a man wearing a green spandex appeared. "Greetings everyone! I am Maito Gai, the mighty green beast of Konoha!" he flashed a smile while giving a thumbs up and a sunset seemed to appear behind his back.

'Is that our sensei?' Naruto taught.

'Kakashi considers him his rival?' Sasuke wondered.

'He is using a genjutsu to make a sunset appear every time he smiles' Hinata realised.

'Green really isn't his colour' Tenten concluded.

'I am glad this isn't our sensei, he looks weird.' Lee thought.

'Fate has decided that Hinata is stuck with this man as punishment for what the main house did to my father.' Neji smirked as he looked at his younger cousin.

"All right my youthful students!" Gai said in his energetic voice, "We don't have time to waste! Meet me at the roof of the academy in five minutes, on second thought make that four minutes. We must continue to push ourselves to greater heights!" without looking back he suddenly ran of towards the roof... on his hands.

"I guess we better follow him." Hinata said.

* * *

Sasuke and Naruto nodded and the three of them headed towards the roof to meet their new Sensei. After catching up with Gai on the roof he explained there was a second test they needed to pass before they truly became Genin. Deciding they had no time to waste he insisted on doing the test that same day. So our three friends soon found themselves at training ground seven while Gai explained their mission.

"It's quite simple really." He said, "Your job is to land a hit on me before the sun sets. That's it, just tag me or successfully hit me with a jutsu or throw a kunai. That's all. Ready? 3, 2, 1, go!"

Once he said "go" he used a body flicker and disappeared from sight. "I can't sense him anywhere nearby!" Naruto said, "Hinata?"

"I'm on it." Hinata said while activating her Byakugan, "He's over there, about 200 metres away from us and increasing the distance."

"Damn, he's fast!" Sasuke stated, "We better go after him before he's out of your reach."

The three of them set of after the speeding Green Beast of Konoha. They quickly realized that landing that hit was going to be more trouble than they thought. They hardly managed to keep up with Gai, who they suspected was already slowing down considerably, let alone go anywhere near him enough to even attempt an attack. A few times they came close enough to throw a shuriken or launch a fireball but Gai either dodged or reflected the attacks and then went off again. Gai had long ago abandoned the training area and was now leading them to a merry chase around the forest, the lake, some other training areas and he even went into the market district once to buy a bottle of water. If it wasn't for Hinata's Byakugan they would have lost sight of him hours ago but they had to use it sparsely as she didn't have the chakra capacity to keep it active for hours on end while doing a high-speed chase.

"All right, let's take a break." Sasuke said, "I'm exhausted."

The three of them said down to get their breath back and started drinking from a water bottle Hinata had bought in the same store as Gai when they chased him there earlier.

"I think we're doing this wrong." Naruto said.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked, still out of breath.

"Look, we can't catch him like this." Naruto said, "he's too fast for any of us and at this rate we'll simply run out of time and fail."

"Well, what can we do then?" Sasuke asked, "we have to catch up with him somehow."

"yeah, but the point is we can't catch him. Not like this. We have to work together."

"But Naruto, we are working together." Hinata said

"No," he shook his head "we aren't. We run alongside each other and don't get in the other's way, that's true. But at the end we are still each doing our own thing. We have to coordinate our movements to trap him. I think this test is about teaching us a point: individually we are limited, but working together we can do it."

"Ok," Sasuke said. "It looks like we have about half an hour left before the sun sets. Hinata where is he now?"

"He went back to our training field and it seems he is waiting for us there."

"All right let's split up and surround him." Naruto said "Hinata you go around and approach from behind, Sasuke you go from the left and I will approach him from the right. When we are in position we attack him from all sides at once. He can't possible dodge every attack." They nodded and everybody left for their respective positions.

* * *

"Hmmm, It's almost time." Gai pondered, "Have they finally given up?"

Suddenly he was forced to dodge as several shuriken came flying out the bushes behind him. He quickly stepped sideways when Naruto jumped out of the trees in front of him doing several handseals "Wind element: Air bullet!" several compressed gusts of air sped rapidly at Gai, who merely jumped to the side and went the other way until he was stopped by a barrage of fireballs that scorched the earth in his path. "fire element: Phoenix Flower Jutsu" Sasuke yelled from the side. Once again changing directions he was suddenly faced with Hinata who launched a whip of water at his head "Water Element: Water Whip!" she said. Gai suddenly dropped and rolled underneath the whip thus avoiding being hit

"You three are very good for Genin!" He complimented "doing elemental attacks is no small feat, I can see my eternal rival Kakashi trained you well. But you still didn't hit me!"

"oh, but we weren't trying to hit you." Hinata suddenly said with an unusual sweet voice that put Gai on alert.

"See it's like this: hitting you is Naruto's job." Sasuke said with a smirk.

"We simply had to distract you." Naruto said before poofing out of existence, showing he was just a clone.

Gai's eyes widened went he realized his three students managed to trick him and just as he was about to move again Naruto, the real one this time, bursted from underneath the earth "Earth Element: Mole Technique." he said with a smile on his face. He was about to hit Gai when the last ray of sunshine suddenly disappeared behind the horizon indicating their time was up.

"That was a very good combination." Gai said "But unfortunately that punch came too late. The sun already set when you hit me."

"Oh come on!" Naruto said, "It was one second. You can't be serious about one second can you?"

"In missions one second can be the difference between success and failure." Gai said in his teacher-mode. "There are plenty of dead people that failed by 'just one second'."

The three of them hung their head in defeat 'if we only worked together sooner we would have won' they each taught.

"But then again," Gai said, "you did came very close. Closer then anyone came in years in fact. I could give you a second chance, but this time it'll be a lot harder. I'll do more than just dodge this time and you will get hurt if I take it seriously. So what about it? Are you prepared to do it again?"

The three of them looked at each other and hardened their resolve. "Yes, Gai-sensei we will do the test again and this time we will hit you before the time limit!"

"Well in that case..." He began, "you pass!" he gave them a thumbs up and the sunset reappeared behind his face as he said so.

"What!" they each yelled in surprise, "what do you mean we pass?"

"I must confess my beloved students that I have lied to you earlier!", he said while crying passionately, "Hitting me was never the real test, it was only a means for me to conduct the true test."

"The true test?" Hinata asked.

"Yes," Gai said "the true test was never giving up despite seemingly impossible odds. You see: it's easy to keep going when all is well, but persevering when the world turns against you, now that is true youthfulness!" he once again gave them his trademark smile and thumbs up.

"So we really passed?" Naruto asked in disbelief.

"yes!" Gai loudly proclaimed, "we will begin first thing tomorrow. Meet me at the training ground at say... 5 o'clock."

"f-f- five?" Naruto said worriedly, "you can't be serious can you?"

"Of course I am!" Gai said "That way we can have several hours of training before we start our first D-rank mission. I can see that this will be most youthful. I'll see you tomorrow, my beautiful students! Now I must inform the Hokage that you passed the test." With that he ran of towards the village again.

Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata looked at each other dumbfounded until they started grinning "all right we passed! Watch out world because team seven is ready for action."

"By the way, Naruto. What's a D-rank mission?" Sasuke asked.

"I think the D stands for 'dangerous'," Naruto said, "we'll probably be sent to save a princess or something. You'll see: being a genin will be so awesome!"

* * *

OMAKE:

"Congratulations on passing you three. We will meet here tomorrow a 8 o'clock for our first mission." Hayate said to team nine.

"Thank you sensei." Neji, Tenten and Lee said as they were about to leave.

"Lee, can I have a small word with you?" Hayate said to one of his students.

"Yes, Hayate-sensei. What do you want?" Lee asked.

"I read in your report you can't perform ninjutsu or genjutsu. Is that true?"

"Yes, due to a medial problem I'm not able convert my chakra towards techniques" Lee answered.

"In that case you will need another way of fighting if you want to go out on missions." Hayate said while handing Lee a wooden stick, "tell me Lee: have you ever considered kenjutsu?"

"kenjutsu?" Lee asked confused.

"Kenjutsu doesn't require chakra." Hayate said, "I think you'd be really good at it if you train hard."

"yes sensei!" Lee said enthusiastically, "I will be the best swordsman the world has ever seen! I will prove you can be a good ninja even without using ninjutsu or genjutsu."

* * *

A/N:

I bet you didn't saw this one coming did you? :D

So yeah, they graduated sooner and now Gai is their sensei. Thinking of a genin-exam for Gai was pretty hard. I couldn't do "teamwork" since that was Kakashi's exam. I figured Gai is all about never giving up so I tried to incorporate that in his test. I hope it worked since AFAIK I'm the first one I know of who did Gai's genin exam in a fic.

It really bothers me that I wasn't able to show their exact level in this chapter. The test didn't allow it and I didn't feel like forcing it just to include it. So in the next chapter I will give a more detailed breakdown of their strengths and weaknesses. I know they look really overpowered and clones of each other in this chapter (once again not something I like, but I couldn't avoid it yet) but in the next one I'll go in more detail and show how each has their own style with strong points and weak points.

See you in two weeks.


	5. Genin at Last

Note: I do not own Naruto.

**Chapter 5: Genin at Last**

"I hate D-ranks!" Naruto shouted while he was waist deep in the Konoha river fishing out garbage.

So far they had been Genin for three weeks and it was terrible. He assumed it would be awesome and adventurous with lots of cool and exciting missions like they talked about at the academy. Funny enough the academy never mentioned such a thing as D-rank missions which included marvellous tasks such as painting a fence, milking cows, dragging wood to a construction site or his all time favourite: catching a runaway cat named Tora.

Their current 'youthful adventure' as their sensei Gai called it consisted of cleaning up the Konoha park after some local women's club had organised a small festival the night before. Therefore Sasuke was filling several plastic bags with garbage, Hinata was in charge of cleaning up the equipment and Naruto, who lost their game of rock-paper-scissors, had to clean up all the garbage from the river that ran through the park.

There were times when he wondered what he was thinking when he decided to graduate a year sooner. Yes school was sort of boring and he didn't really learn anything new any more but at least you didn't had to dig any empty ramen-cups from a river at seven o'clock in the morning.

Then again Gai said they were making great process in their training and he was going to ask the Hokage for a C-rank mission soon. Thinking back on their first real training session he was still a bit embarrassed about Gai's assessment of their skills. They were always used to being the best of their year so hearing Gai point out their flaws was a much due wake-up call. He thought they couldn't have been that bad since only one other team of their graduating class passed their Genin test therefore making them the second best team of their generation, right?

But Gai had also pointed out that since their classmates didn't pass their performance no longer counted. And next to the other Genin teams theirs was the weakest one at the moment. Hearing it like that they were motivated to change that and get back to the top-position they were used to. Luckily Gai thought the same and had given them a strict training schedule to improve. He remembered that first training day like it was yesterday...

* * *

flashback - three weeks ago:

Their first training session consisted of more test where Gai would test each of them individually to get a good grip on their skills. He had their files from the academy but he insisted that files didn't show everything and wanted to see for himself.

Naruto went first and showed his wind jutsu, his own mix of taijutsu, his throwing skills and finally surprised Gai with making a hundred shadow clones and being able to perform a solid transformation.

Sasuke showed his fire and electrical jutsu, his clan-style in taijutsu the "Interceptor Fist" and his skills with kunai and shuriken.

Hinata showed off her water techniques, her taijutsu-skill in the "Gentle Fist"-style and her home-made healing salves.

After also testing their endurance and stamina Gai was finally ready to give his opinion.

"All right, My youthful students! There is good news and there is bad news" he said in his always enthusiastic voice.

"The good news is that you three are very well balanced." He began, "As expected from my eternal rival, Kakashi made sure that you studied and trained in every art of the ninja. Usually beginning Genin have a few glaring holes in their education and are thus easily defeated when their opponent figures it out. You three on the other hand have good taijutsu, ninjutsu and shuriken-control. An enemy will be hard pressed to find an exploitable weakness."

The tree of them grinned at that, it seemed their hard training had paid of until Gai gave them the downside of their training.

"Unfortunately that style of training also comes with a price, one that will cost you dearly in the long run if you keep this up!" Gai said with an ominous voice.

"What do you mean Gai-sensei?" Hinata asked. "Isn't it a good thing not to have weaknesses?"

"Yes of course that is good." he explained, "But you shouldn't try to generalize your skill-set too much or you'll end up as a Jack of all trades but a Master of none."

"I noticed that while you don't have any obvious shortcomings you also don't have any real strengths either. You will end up being mediocre at most skills and won't really excel at any in particular. Until now your strict training and low level made sure you were able to outperform your classmates anyway, but if you keep this up you will notice that you start stagnating instead of making progress." Gai explained in his teacher-mode.

"Then what do we do?" Sasuke asked.

"I recommend that you start specialising in one particular field. That's the way most Jonin do it." he answered, "For example: I am a taijutsu specialist and deadly in close combat. And while I do keep up with my ninjutsu, it is Chuunin-level at best. My rival Kakashi on the other hand is a ninjutsu specialist, who only has average taijutsu compared to a master like myself. Others specialise in genjutsu like Kurenai Yuhi or in kenjutsu like Hayate Gekko. Even the Hokage himself is really only skilled in ninjutsu and isn't that strong in taijutsu or genjutsu any more. The point is that if you want to be the best at everything you'll only end up as the best in nothing. You have to specialise in one area."

"Specialise in one area?" Naruto pondered, "It makes sense I guess. Still it is a pretty big decision to make. I'm not sure I feel ready yet to know what my entire further career will look like."

"Indeed, my youthful student!" Gai said approvingly, "This is a very important decision. I recommend thinking carefully before you choose. Don't just pick something because you feel like you have to."

"I want to specialise in taijutsu." Hinata suddenly said. "The Byakugan allows me to perform the 'Gentle Fist'-style so that would be an obvious choice. Besides my chakra-reserves aren't big enough to focus on ninjutsu anyway."

"very good Hinata," Gai praised her, "that is a well thought out reason. I think you'll do very well as a taijutsu-specialist."

"I'll pick ninjutsu." Sasuke stated, "I feel more comfortable attacking from a distance and my fire jutsus cannot be implemented at close-range since they could end up damaging me as well. Also once I unlock the Sharingan I'll be able to copy other people's jutsus and use their own attacks against them. And Kakashi warned me that in order to do that I need a lot of experience in ninjutsu or I'll only end up with inferior copies."

One again Gai nodded in approval, "Yes that is very sound reasoning. You'll do fine as a ninjutsu specialist." Sasuke smiled at the praise. "And finally Naruto have you made a decision yet?" Gai asked his blond pupil.

"I don't know..." Naruto said whilst thinking it over. "I mean: I like close combat more than fighting from a distance but I'm not sure I have a future in taijutsu. I usually stick to the academy style combined with a few advanced moves I picked up left and right. For now it's enough but I know it'll never stand against a real style, especially an advanced one like the Gentle Fist. On the other hand my wind-techniques are very good and I know I have enough chakra to not have to hold back in a fight. But the whole running, dodging and throwing techniques from a distance isn't my style. I usually throw a few "Air Bullets" at my opponent before moving in and fighting up close, but I don't think I can do an entire fight with jutsus though. What do you think is best Gai-sensei?" Naruto asked.

"That is indeed a challenging problem my dear student. You are best suited for something you don't really want to do and not so good at the thing you like doing." Gai summarized in his teacher-mode. "Normally there isn't really a correct answer for dilemma's like these, but you are in luck since I know just the answer for your problem." Gai said while giving a thumbs up.

"But how?" Sasuke asked, "It looks to me like he has to make a choice either way. The style he is good at versus the style he likes most. Whatever he ends up choosing, he will have to face consequences, right?" Naruto and Hinata nodded at this and waited at their sensei's response.

"Normally you would be correct as most ninjutsu aren't suited for close-combat compared to taijutsu." Gai said, "But luckily for Naruto Wind-techniques are the exception. Wind is known as the most aggressive of the five elements and using the right techniques it's perfect for close-combat fighters as well. Until now you focussed on wind-techniques that blew your opponent away from a distance, but if you focus on the techniques that slash your opponent with the cutting power of wind instead of those that blow them away from afar you can easily combine wind-ninjutsu with close combat fighting. In essence you will train both your ninjutsu and taijutsu at the same time without having to sacrifice either."

Naruto smiled as he heard this. This was perfect for him, using his large chakra reserves for ninjutsu while still fighting up close and personal. This was everything he wanted in his fighting style. "Thank you Gai-sensei, I will look into cutting powers of the wind at once."

Gai smiled at Naruto's enthusiasm and gave him a thumbs-up while his teeth were sparkling. "That's the spirit, with the power of youth you will succeed in no time."

"However..." he suddenly said with his serious voice again, "now that your fighting style is taken care of I want to focus on the second problem in your skills."

"A second problem?" Hinata asked.

"Yes," Gai said, "while you are very skilled in battle you three are quite lacking in other skills a ninja must posses. At this point you are little more than trained fighters. For instance: how would you go about infiltrating an enemy stronghold and copying papers without being seen? You can't just enter through the front door and fight your way in. Especially if Konoha can't officially be involved. Or what if you have to track down a runaway prisoner? You can have all the fighting-power in the world to take him down but that won't do you much good if you can't locate him in the first place. Without support-skills all the battle-prowess in the world is meaningless."

The three of them nodded, seeing the wisdom behind his words.

"Now don't worry too much, eventually most of these skills will come from experience and nobody expects a Genin to know them all." Gai said, "But for now I want you to also study one extra skill that isn't immediately related to combat. That way we can broaden our arsenal and get more C-rank missions sooner. Besides, there is never any harm in knowing more stuff. A lot of people end up implementing their other skills in combat as well. So do you have an idea what you would want to pick up?" Gai asked.

"Fuinjutsu" Naruto said without even pretending to think about it.

"Sealing-techniques?" Gai asked in amazement. "That is a pretty overlooked skill. Why did you pick it?"

"My clan, the Uzumaki, were known as experts in fuinjutsu." Naruto said quietly, "and even if I never get to meet them, I feel like studying seals will make me get closer to them." Sasuke and Hinata each put a hand on his shoulder to show their support and Gai nodded approvingly.

"I see." Gai said, "Well I don't really know a lot about seals myself but I'll try to find you some literature to start on. Now what about you two?"

"I want to learn medical jutsu and techniques." Hinata said. "I already make my own healing lotions from herbs and I want to know more about other healing techniques."

"I want to study genjutsu." Sasuke finally said. "Several of my clan's techniques are based around genjutsu and it is one art I am not very good at at the moment."

"Very well" Gai said with a thumbs up and a sparkle in his teeth, "I'll try to get you guys going on the things you want to learn. Now that that is settled let's continue our regular training and then we can do our first mission."

flashback end.

* * *

It's been three weeks since Naruto started working on his new fighting style and his study in fuinjutsu and so far he made little progress. The scrolls Gai gave him about the "Wind Sage"-style demanded that he was already able to gather pure wind chakra, which he could train by splitting a leaf with his chakra. So far he tried it for three weeks and all he had to show for it is a small indent that might be the beginning of a cut. Gai insisted that he shouldn't give up and that it was normal that it could take weeks before he could get the hang of it. In the meantime Gai recommended that he bought a weapon made from a chakra-conducting material so he could learn to use that one in the meantime. Eventually he would learn how to channel wind-chakra into the weapon to really do some damage. The final step, where he wouldn't even need a conductor at all and would be able to channel the various wind-blades from his limbs at will, would take years to master. So he better started doing it sooner than later.

His fuinjutsu studies went slightly better once he got properly started. At first many scrolls and books he looked up on the topic were written for Chunin or higher and assumed he already had a good knowledge of chakra theory. He even found an original scroll from the first Uzukage himself inside the personal library of Mito Uzumaki, that was now integrated in the ANBU archives. However his enthusiasm quickly faded once he realized he literally did not understand one word in the entire scroll. The Uzumakis were talented at sealing and especially the Uzukage was a master. Thus he did not bother dumbing things down or properly explaining what exactly each seal was supposed to be doing in the first place.

Eventually though Kakashi handed him a small red book called "Sealing for dummies", it was written by a guy called Jiraiya and it was the only book that actually thought you how to make seals from scratch instead of assuming you already knew and just needed specific recipes. So after going through the first few lessons on what seals are and the different ways you can use them he started making his very first seals.

So with that in mind he entered the "Dragon Fang" weapon-shop to buy new sealing scrolls, ink, brushes and to look at one of those chakra-conducting weapons Gai talked about.

"Welcome to the Dragon Fang, how can I help you today?" a familiar voice said as he entered the store.

"Oh, hi Tenten," Naruto said to the girl who greeted him, "do you work here? I didn't know that."

"Naruto, I didn't recognize you at first." Tenten said, "And yes I have a part-time job here. I met the owner on one of those D-rank missions" she rolled her eyes in disgust as she spoke of the bane of all Genin, "and he was quite impressed with my knowledge of weapons so he offered me a part-time job. The money is not bad, I like working with all the weapons and I get a discount on everything I need! Which really comes in handy. But anyway enough about me: are you here for something specific?"

"Yes," Naruto said while mentally checking over his list, "I need five empty sealing scrolls, chakra-sensitive ink and a few brushes."

Tenten started gathering the items while they kept talking "So what are these for then? Do you know how to make seals?" she asked.

"I'm working on it," Naruto said, "but it's pretty complicated though. For now I'm working on custom explosive tags and paralysing seals, which are basically the two simplest seals to start with. I also looked at the more advanced seals as well and there is some pretty crazy stuff in there. But that won't be for a year or so. Still it's going to be awesome when I can finally do it."

"No doubt about that." Tenten replied, "so is that all or do you need something else as well?"

"Actually I do." Naruto said, "Gai-sensei said I should look into chakra-conducting weapons. Do you sell those?"

"Chakra-conducting weapons huh?" Tenten whistled through her teeth, "Yeah we have a few of those in the back but I have to warn you: those things are pretty expensive."

"I was afraid of that." Naruto said while looking at his wallet with a frown, "well can you show them anyway?"

"Sure thing." Tenten said, "follow me." she went to the back of the store where they kept the more exclusive weapons. She pointed Naruto towards a corner where several weapons that were made from a dark-green material were put on display.

"Here are our chakra-conducting weapons." Tenten explained, "They are imported from the land of Iron and made by authentic Samurai-blacksmiths. The exact composition of the alloy is a closely guarded secret but it is the best material to make these blades from. These are the best weapons in all of Konoha!"

"It looks like they are also the most expensive weapons in all of Konoha." Naruto said while looking at the price-tags on display.

"Yeah, they aren't cheap." Tenten admitted, "but trust me they are worth every ryu."

"How do they work anyway?" Naruto asked.

"The idea is quite simple," Tenten explained, "Basically every handle has a small chakra-sensitive surface that is directly connected to the blade itself. So when you let your chakra flow into this surface it spreads directly into the weapon. Due to the special alloy used to make these weapons the properties of the blade change depending on the type of chakra that is used. Some weapons also have several seals inscribed in them that allow for additional effects."

"So put the chakra in the handle and it transfers to the blade? Okay seems simple enough." Naruto said, "So what kind of weapons are there?"

"We have all kinds of standard bladed weapons like katanas, daggers, trench knives and short swords." She pointed towards a shelf filled with blades of all sizes.

"But we also have some non-traditional weapons like quarterstaffs, maces, axes, tonfas, sais and nunchakus." She pointed to another shelf with all kinds of less traditional weapons, a lot of them seemed highly impractical and Naruto wondered if someone actually used these. Still he found something that piqued his interest.

"These ones looks rather unique," he said pointing at what appeared to be a pair of gloves, "How do they work."

"Ah yes the combat gloves." Tenten said, "they are a one-of-a-kind weapon. The blacksmith that invented these insisted they would be revolutionary and made these as a prototype. But they didn't catch on with the samurai so he was forced to abandon his plans and sold the prototype to recover his losses. According to the scroll that comes with it you wear them as if they are normal gloves, like this." Tenten carefully put the combat gloves on as she continued the demonstration.

"The inside of the gloves have several chakra-sensitive receptors in each finger and on the palm so it feels slightly funny and sluggish at first but it doesn't hinder regular movement so forming handseals or using taijutsu shouldn't be a problem." Tenten explained.

"Now the real fun begins when you are channelling chakra in them." as she explained it the gloves suddenly began glowing light-green, "When you are activating the gloves the outside becomes harder than steel and you can release several of its hidden blades and other parts depending on how you channel your chakra." Suddenly three foot-long claw-like blades sprang between the knuckles of the gloves. "These are claws" Tenten explained, "they are harder than steel and sharp enough to cut through rocks. They will also never break or go dull since the blades reshape themselves from your chakra."

Suddenly the claws retracted and a single solid blade appeared from the palm of the blade and nested itself between the middle and ring finger. "This one is called 'the hidden blade'. Its design is based on weapons used by some ancient guild of assassins. It's primarily a stabbing weapon designed to go through any kind of armour. And just like the claws it will always be in prime condition since it reforms itself on your chakra. Finally the blade is said to adapt itself to its user. The longer you use it the stronger your link with the weapon will become. Eventually you can start making more complex forms, but that's just according to the smith. It has never actually been tested."

"This weapon looks incredible, how much is it?" Naruto asked.

"Well, it's uh... 250,000 ryu." Tenten said calmly.

"250,000!" Naruto almost yelled. "I can't afford that."

"Maybe I know a solution." Tenten suggested. "See our normal supplier of seals has stopped recently and we are running out of our supply of tags and can't find another source any time soon. You said you can make custom explosion tags, right? If you can show my manager that your tags are good enough to sell you can strike a deal with him. He's currently really desperate for a new supplier and would be willing to pay up to 500 Ryu for every batch of ten tags. If you think of it as a part-time job and produce a few hundred a week you can make the money back easily."

Naruto considered this and decided he really wanted the combat gloves. Besides with his shadow clones making the seals in large quantities wouldn't be as tedious as everyone assumed, but they didn't need to know that right? "All right Tenten, I'll go talk to your manager about supplying seals."

* * *

The next day Naruto tested his new weapon out in the training-session of team 7. Using handseals with them was a bit hard at first but he quickly got used to them and he got the hang of it quite fast. Using them in his new fighting style turned out to be quite a work out. According to the scroll that came with the gloves they weren't accepted by the samurai because the chakra-drain was considered too big for prolonged use. 'Too big for a Samurai that is.' he chuckled to himself while thinking of his enormous amount of chakra, a gift from his unwanted tenant. So far he was using them for three hours straight and he was still good to go. That didn't mean he didn't feel the drain, especially when he changed from the claws to the blade and back to their unhardened state all the time. Still he felt comfortable that he could keep using them for an entire fight without the risk of running low on chakra.

His sealing had also improved a lot. Apparently using shadow clones to mass produce the seals he sold to get his money back had the side-effect that he trained his sealing a lot faster than the book said he would. Right now he could make a normal explosive tag in less than a minute and a custom one in five minutes. So with an hour of work a week and ten shadow clones helping him he made 60 batches of tags which he sold to the Dragon's Fang for 500 ryu per batch, not a bad deal if he said so himself.

For the next three weeks Naruto's schedule consisted of training with his new gloves, crafting better explosive seals for the Dragon's Fang, training with his team, doing those god awful D-ranks and working on his wind chakra. Eventually Gai decided they were ready for their first C-rank mission. It still wasn't anything fancy or legendary but it could at least be considered actual ninja-work instead of cheap child-labour. So team seven went into the Hokage Tower for their first real mission.

* * *

"So Gai, you think they are ready for a C-rank?" The Hokage asked the man in green thighs.

"Absolutely Lord Hokage! My youthful students have trained very hard and they are now ready for the first big step in their career." Gai shouted whilst giving a thumbs-up.

"..."

"I'll take that as a yes then." The Hokage said, seemingly used to Gai's wild behaviour, "Now let's see what we have." He reached the mission scrolls before him and looked at the pile of C-rank missions that were requested of the village.

"An escort mission? No, the client's too important. Border patrol? No, that's not suited for kids. guard duty? Too soon..." The Hokage went over each scroll and put it back down looking for something suited for a beginning team. "Ah this is an interesting one." he suddenly said while reading a particular scroll.

"Apparently the town of Kyoku is recently plagued by sightings of a 'monster' as they call it. The unknown creature appears at night and roams around the area of the town. So far there has only been material damage and no casualties but the people are getting afraid and want this dealt with immediately. The mayor of Kyoku suspects that it's all a trick of the mind and that this monster is nothing more than a regular animal like a bear or some youngsters who scare people. He expects you to investigate the attacks and put a stop to them before the rumours grow out of control. The town lives of its tourism after all and they can't use bad press or talk of monsters."

"Have no fear Lord Hokage, we will solve this mystery and bring peace to the poor people of Kyoku." Gai proclaimed loudly while accepting the mission scroll.

"That's great Gai." The Hokage said simply without a single hint of sarcasm in his voice, "anyway you are dismissed. Good luck on your mission."

"All right team," Gai said, "pack your bags for a long term mission and meet me at the gate in one hour. Kyoku town is five days travel from here but if we hurry we can do it in four."

"Yes Gai-sensei." They all said and disappeared to get ready, thrilled to finally get a real mission.

* * *

Meanwhile in a cave near Kyoku town:

"Are you certain he is here somewhere?" a dark voice asked.

"Yes captain, the damage we found near the town matches his chakra signature, he is definitely somewhere in this area."

"What makes you so sure he didn't leave already? He has been running from us for two weeks straight now."

"He was heavily hurt when he escaped our facility. It's a miracle he got this far but it looks like he finally had to stop and rest somewhere. It looks like he is waiting and recovering somewhere nearby. Though we better act quick. Once he is fully healed he'll be on the move again and we might lose his trail."

"Captain, we have a problem." a new voice suddenly said, "the mayor got sick of the rumours and called help from Konoha. They will be sending a squad soon."

"Dammit," the captain of the group said, "we can't have Konoha-nin snooping around. That complicates everything. Go back and find that freak! We have to recover him at all cost."

"Yes sir," both of his underlings said and disappeared in a swirl to look for their missing prisoner.

"Shit, shit, shit," the captain mumbled to himself "Lord Orochimaru will kill us if we let his experiment fall in Konoha's hands. Where the hell is that bastard hiding?"

* * *

A/n:

well that's it for this chapter. From now on the massive time-skips will slow down and we will move at a slower pace. This chapter was a bit of a breather to explain where everyone currently stands, especially since this didn't come over well last chapter. It also shows what they are planning to do in the future.

I really like the combat gloves. As I said, they are a one-of-a-kind prototype made by Samurai blacksmiths, that got refused because of the heavy chakra-drain making them worthless to anyone but Naruto. If you can't picture what they look like think of Wolverine's claws and the hidden blade from Assasin's creed all in one package.

And it also looks like Orochimaru's henchmen show their head a little sooner than normal. The identity of the mysterious 'monster' is a mystery for now, but here's a hint: it's NOT an OC and this does fit in canon. Care to take a guess? ;)

Now starting next monday I'm going on a three-week holiday so maybe I'll get chapter 6 done on Sunday (ps: reviews help me get motivated to write faster), otherwise I won't be back until August.

Please R&R


	6. Trouble in kyoku Town

Note: I do not own Naruto**  
**

**06 – The Mystery of Kyoku**

Team 7 made quick progress towards the border-town of Kyoku. With no civilian to slow them down, like you have to deal with on escort-missions, they quickly went for the trees and sped towards their destination. Normally the town was two weeks travel away from Konoha but ninjas could do it in four days if they had nothing holding them back. Gai insisted that they would make it in three days instead "with the power of youth!", even if that meant they had barely no breaks. And so team 7 arrived at their destination on the evening of the third day. They were exhausted from the long running sessions Gai forced on them and very hungry since they didn't have had time for a proper meal. So the team went straight for the house of the mayor, who was also the client that hired them, to get installed as soon as possible.

"Ah, you must be the ninja from Konoha my master requested?" A man wearing a suit asked after they knocked on the mayor's house. "I must say you came sooner than we expected."

"That is us all right! Team Gai is reporting for duty." Gai answered loudly while giving the man a huge smile and a thumbs up.

"Do come in." The man said while holding the door open. "My master Furukami-sama already went to bed. But I will lead you to your rooms and he will come see you the first thing in the morning. My name is Takawara, his assistant."

As team Gai went inside Naruto's stomach started rumbling.

"Would you like something to eat first, ninja-san" Takawara asked with a smile.

"We don't want to intrude." Naruto replied.

"Nonsense, you are our guest. I will prepare a meal for you. I hope you don't mind something simple like ramen?" Takawara almost apologized.

"Did you say ramen! Takawara-san you are the best!" Naruto exclaimed enthusiastically, which earned him a small giggle from Hinata.

After their meal the team installed themselves in their room and had their first real sleep in three days.

* * *

The next day they met their client. Murao Furukami was a man in his late forties with pitch-black hair, blue eyes and an expensive kimono. He greeted the ninjas with an air of confidence that proved this wasn't the first time he dealt with shinobi.

"So we are here to deal with a monster that has been harassing your town, am I correct?" Gai said.

"Oh please!" Murao said with a wave of his hand,"don't tell me you believe those fairy tales?"

"The mission scroll said this town was under attack from some monster." Gai clarified. "Are you saying that's not true?"

"Oh no there is definitely something going on. But it's not a monster. Look I'll get right to the point. Two weeks ago several of our farmers started reporting attacks on their cattle at night. The local militia looked at it but couldn't solve the crime. Soon those stories started getting a life of their own and now the townsfolk are afraid that 'a monster' is attacking this town." Murao shook his head in disbelief at how gullible people were.

"So what are we here for then?" Gai asked.

"Basically it's a PR-move. I want you to publicly investigate these attacks, show everyone that I hired Konoha-shinobi and that I take this threat seriously. Then after you 'discover' that it's just a wild bear, some bandits or maybe a kid pulling a prank you enter the woods and get the one responsible. The sooner this ridiculous nonsense is over, the better. We depend on income from the trade routes run through here and these stories are scaring away the merchants"

"I see. Well could you lead us to one of the crime-scenes so we can get started? It's better we get this over with as soon as possible."

"Of course. My assistant Takawara-san will be at your service for the remainder of your stay. Ask him and he will lead you to where you need to go."

* * *

And thus team seven and their guide Takawara left to investigate the place where the supposed monster attacked first. Gai noted that Takawara lead them through the middle of the village instead of going straight at the farm, which was located near the edge. 'No doubt another calculated move to make sure everyone sees us. Bah I hate parading like this, this is not youthful at all! We shall have to plan extra training exercises when we get back to rekindle our flames of youth after this mission. Yes, that is a most excellent idea.'

During the rest of the day they went towards several farms, once again taking busy roads on purpose Gai noted, to look at the various sites that were attacked. Using Hinata's Byakugan and Gai's experience they even managed to collect several hidden clues that the local militia didn't accidentally destroy in their amateurish attempt at investigating. Gai was still furious when he heard the carcasses of the attacked animals were already destroyed. How was he supposed to know what attacked these cows if they didn't even leave a corpse to look at the wounds anymore?

After dinner they got back to their rooms and spread everything they found out on the floor. Gai immediately noticed a pattern but decided that this was a good training exercise for his Genins so he backed of and let them try to figure it out themselves.

"All right team, what do we have?" He asked innocently.

"On the site of the first attack we found blood that doesn't belong to a cow, so the attacker was bleeding himself, yet there were no signs of a fight." Hinata said.

"In the second attack he broke through a wall to get in. That's not something a kid can do for a prank, so that's out." Naruto said.

"He also stole clothes and bottles of water, so it's not a wild animal like a bear." Sasuke continued.

"So a group of bandits then?" Hinata asked.

"Not likely," Naruto pointed out, "When he entered that third farm he only took clothes and some basic supplies and didn't touch the rest. Even I could see there was quite some money to be made in that place. Bandits wouldn't be able to resist taking the jewellery. No our man is not in it for the money."

Gai was smiling as he saw that his team connected all the clues, 'now let's see if they come to the right conclusion as well.'

"Indeed, indeed. But what does it all mean?" He asked his students.

"We have one man, who is working alone. He is injured, hence the bleeding, and in need of supplies. He enters a few farms at night and takes only what he needs to eat and heal up. So I'm guessing we have a fugitive." Naruto said.

"But if it's a fugitive why not just come to town and check in at the hospital?" Hinata asked.

"Because he can't." Sasuke answered. "The way he entered some of these farms proves he has at least some basic ninja abilities. So now we are dealing with a missing-nin. The trail he left at the first farm leads to the north, that's the border. So we have a missing-nin from another country, he ran away from his pursuers but got wounded. Once he reached the Land of Fire he felt safe enough to stop here and heal up."

"Correct." Gai said, "now there is still one last piece to this puzzle. What do you assume his next move will be?"

"How can we possible know what he's planning based on what he stole?"

"Sometimes the answer lies not in what you see, but in what you don't see."

"Huh?"

"Idiot!" Sasuke said while slapping Naruto, "he means that we shouldn't look at what he stole so far but rather at what he didn't steal yet."

"That's no reason to hit me you bastard!"

"Will you two stop fighting and focus on our mission here?" Hinata said while playing peacekeeper again.

The three Genin looked at all the items that were stolen and tried to find the missing piece.

'What didn't he steal yet?' Naruto pondered, 'there is food, some clothes,basic medical supplies... But what is missing? Let's just think this over: he shows up wounded so he needs food and medical supplies. He also needs fresh clothes and more bandages to keep healing. But he already has all of that, so what else doe he need? okay, let's continue: he is done healing and now he wants to... That's it!'

"He hasn't left the area yet!"

"What do you mean, Naruto?" Hinata asked

"All he stole was stuff to keep him going for a few more days, he hasn't stolen anything you need for a long trip. That's his next target, he will strike at a general store next and take canned supplies alongside travel gear."

"And there is only one store in town that sells all of those!" Sasuke suddenly realized.

"So that means..."

"Well done, my dear students!" Gai said, "you solved this puzzle. We are dealing with a runaway fugitive, possibly a prisoner, who was in need of medical help. And now that his wounds are almost healed he will make another run for it. But first he needs supplies and for that he will have to break into the general store next. Possibly even this night."

"Well then, what are we waiting for? We should be guarding the store then."

"We do have some time left, he's not going to make a move when there are still people on the streets. But yes, we will keep an eye on the store. I'll talk to Takawara and see if he can help us."

* * *

Later that night team seven was hiding on the rooftop of the building across the street from the store. They were taking turns keeping watch while the others were waiting nearby. So far nothing exciting has happened yet, but then again it wasn't until now that the night truly began when the last people left the streets to the confines of their home.

Unbeknownst to them they weren't the only ones watching the store. Situated on the other side, hiding under bushes, were three ninjas who also had a stake in capturing the one responsible for the recent attacks.

"You sure this is the right store?" The eldest of the three and the one in charge asked.

"Yes sir, I checked the entire town and this is the only store in a 20 mile radius that sells all the stuff he will need to make another run."

"And he will strike tonight?"

"He will strike soon, sir. Might be tonight, might be tomorrow, but looking at the last hit he did I can see he is almost healed enough to run away again."

"Now listen up you two!" The commander said in a threatening voice, "This is our last chance, we cannot risk it to go deeper into Konoha-territory. If you screw this up and he manages to escape I will personally make sure you regret the day you were born! Do I make myself clear?"

The two younger ninjas gulped at the threat and responded with a "yes sir!" before one of them dared asked the question that was on their lips: "And what about that team from Konoha sir? They arrived yesterday evening and made quite a show today. Any chance they'll pose a problem?"

He snorted at that, "those poor excuses for shinobi? All they did was parade around town and draw attention to themselves. Hell that Jonin was wearing green spandex for crying out loud! But in the off-chance that they do stumble upon the scene tonight the orders are clear: 'no witnesses', got it?"

The two nodded and looked back at the store.

"I think I see someone coming, you think it's him?"

The captain looked at the cloaked figure slowly approaching the store "That's him all right. We wait till he's inside the store and then go in from the back. Get ready."

* * *

"Gai-sensei, we have company!" Hinata said, at which point the rest of team seven stood up as well and looked at the figure that was approaching the store.

"Very sloppy," Gai remarked, "I doubt he had proper ninja-training. That makes our job easier. We wait till he's inside and then move in from the front. Get in position."

The cloaked figure carefully approached the store and looked around to see if the coast was clear. When he couldn't spot anyone he quickly kicked a side-door in with one kick and went inside to get the equipment he needed. When he went inside Gai ordered team seven to go in after him and soon they entered the store at the front to sneak up on him. At the same time three other ninjas approached the store from the back and entered the warehouse from the other side.

"Hinata, do you see him?" asked Gai.

Hinata activated her Byakugan and looked around. "Yes, he's over there. He hasn't seen us yet" she whispered, "Wait! There are three other people that entered the store just now from the other side. They are approaching him too! They are definitely ninjas though they don't have any headband on."

"Damn, that must be the team that was tracking him down earlier." Gai reasoned.

"What do we do now, sensei?"

"For now we wait and see. Since we don't know what's going on between them we can't be sure which side to take. We could be helping a dangerous prisoner escape as well help in a kidnapping! Both are equally possible without the right context."

The three Genin nodded and carefully went closer to their target to see what would happen and to intervene if Gai gave the signal.

Meanwhile the cloaked figure moved through the store looking for all the equipment he needed when the captain of the enemy squad made his appearance. "Going somewhere?" he asked the startled man, "What? You didn't think you could escape that easily, did you? Lord Orochimaru has requested an audience, so you better don't disappoint him." he said with a smirk as his two subordinates appeared from the other side to surround their target.

But suddenly the cloaked man decided to make a run for it and he turned to the smallest of his three would-be captors and swatted him away before making a dash towards the nearest wall. Without stopping he punched through the wall with a giant deformed looking arm and made his way outside.

"After him!" The enemy captain ordered, "don't let him escape."

'Orochimaru! I don't know what that snake is up to, but I now know which side to take.' Gai thought before addressing his team. "All right, time to move. I'll take their leader since he looks like a Jonin. Hinata you take the one on the left with that weird device on his arm and Sasuke the one on the right. Naruto you go and secure our prisoner. Now move out."

Using the newly made hole team 7 quickly followed their respective targets. Outside they saw that the battle had already erupted and the outnumbered fugitive was losing fast to the three ninja. Wasting no time they each went after their designated target, hoping to catch him by surprise and take him out fast before they really had a chance to fight back.

Gai went straight for the leader of the three and the only one at Jonin-level. As the captain was about to launch a fireball at the still cloaked fugitive Gai used a Body Flicker to appear before him and hit the man hard in his jaw causing him to lose focus and slide back several feet. "So the ninjas from Konoha make an appearance after all!" The man glared while rubbing his jaw, "Guess even a weirdo like yourself has at least some skill."

"I am Maito Gai, the green beast of Konoha!" Gai shouted while assuming his "Strong Fist"-stance, "and you three are under arrest for unlawfully entering the Land of Fire and causing problems to its citizens. Surrender now or I will be forced to use violence."

"Looks like we have ourselves a comedian." The enemy captain smirked, "all right big guy, let's dance." With that he jumped back and flew through several handseals "Fire style: Fire Dragon Jutsu!" a giant dragon made of flames erupted from his mouth and flew towards Guy who could do nothing but dodge or get burned to a crisp.

While Guy kept avoiding the captains fire jutsus Hinata found herself facing her own opponent. A young man, obviously still a Genin, who attacked using a weird device on his arm that transmitted soundwaves and made her feel nauseated. Luckily she did catch him by surprise at first and landed a few hits with her Gentle Fist before he could use the device and she was forced to back away. Using her Byakugan she noticed that she at least succeeded in closing several of his main tenketsu, which would make performing jutsus considerably harder for him. Seeing as she couldn't get closer to her opponent without getting caught in the seemingly undodgeable sound-attack she tried another method. "Water style: water whip!" Hinata yelled out while a whip made of water shot from her hands and encircled the weird device on the Genin's arm, "got you know!"

"I don't think so." The Genin said, "don't you people know that water transmits soundwaves just fine?" As he said that he used his device again and the whip around it dissolved back into water. Hinata cursed under her breath and tried coming up with another plan while she kept out of the way of yet another sound-attack. She looked around and noticed Sasuke and his opponent were engaged as well. Sasuke used his fire-attacks but his opponent kept dodging them and tried to get in close, only for Sasuke to keep his distance and throw in a genjutsu from time to time. It looks like he was facing a taijutsu-specialist, though from the looks of it not one that would give her many problems. 'Wait a minute,' she suddenly thought, 'I think I know what to do. Now to try and get Sasuke on board with this plan'.

* * *

While everyone was distracted Naruto hurried over to the unconscious man on the ground and tried to get him out of there, he couldn't risk a stray fire-attack hitting him after all. After putting some distance between himself and the battlefield he started treating the unconscious man. He removed the heavy cloak to take a good look at him. The man was around his age, but he was huge. Even now he was at least two heads bigger than him. He wondered when he would finally get his growth-spurt, 'life just isn't fair' he thought. He also noticed that the man had bright orange hair and some weird markings on his body. At first he thought it was a tattoo but they seemed to be changing ever so slightly, as if they were a part of himself. 'Must be a bloodline.' he thought 'is that why these other guys want him? To steal his abilities for themselves?'

Seeing that he didn't seem to have any wounds, besides some old ones which were bandaged and healed nicely, he decided to wake him up and talk to him. "Hey there, are you okay? What's your name?" Naruto asked while trying to shake the man awake.

* * *

"In Kami's name stand still!" Sasuke cursed when his opponent dodged yet another fireball and then ran straight at him again, forcing him to move out of the way. At this rate he was going nowhere fast and he didn't trust his opponent in close combat. He saw the guy had an ace up his sleeve and he didn't want to face him until he knew what it was. 'Still I better think of something before I run out of chakra.' he thought. Then he noticed Hinata approaching him.

"Sasuke, prepare for tactic number three!" She yelled at him.

'Tactic number three? Of course, that'll work out just fine.' He smirked and started running towards Hinata with his opponent in tow.

When Sasuke and Hinata reached each other in the middle they each ran past their teammate and headed towards the other's opponent, effectively switching targets. It was a tactic Gai taught them in case they faced an opponent that was strong against them but would be ideal for a comrade, especially since most people are too focused on just their opponent and don't expect to suddenly switch targets in the middle of a battle.

And indeed the Genin with the sound-amplifier on his arm was still focused on Hinata and hardly noticed that Sasuke started going through handseals. When he finally realized his mistake he just barely managed to dodge the barrage of fireballs Sasuke had sent his way. Had he reacted half a second later he would have been killed already, now he escaped with minor burns. Sasuke didn't waste time however and launched forward to quickly place an explosive tag on the weird sound device while the Genin was still recovering.

"I got you know!" He said while activating the tag blowing up the device. When the smoke cleared the enemy ninja was dead and completely unrecognisable from the blast.

"Damn, these new explosive tags in the Dragon's Fang are awesome!" He whistled trough his teeth, "sure 2000 Ryo for a pack of ten isn't cheap but the extra power is worth it."

Hinata's opponent didn't lose sight of his surroundings however and noticed that the two Leaf-ninjas switched positions. "So I'm fighting the girl now?" he said, "I hope you won't run away all the time at least".

"I won't." was all Hinata said before moving towards him and beginning her assault. After the first few hits she realized why her opponent acted cocky: his skin felt like hitting a brick wall and not even Gai would have an easy time damaging his defences without going all out. "So how do you like my 'Iron Wall'-defence?" he asked cockily, "your punches aren't that hard to begin with but compared to my skin they are completely useless! Nobody has ever beaten me in a taijutsu battle!"

Hinata only smiled while she continued her assault, she used her speed and agility to dodge his punches and kept on hitting him repeatedly in various parts all over his body eventually ending her combo with a palm-strike in his chest forcing her opponent to fall on his knees and cough up blood. "But but how?" he asked with wide eyes, "you couldn't have damaged my 'Iron Wall' so easily."

"I didn't have to." She explained, "The Gentle Fist attacks the internal organs, bypassing any outer defences completely, your Iron Wall might as well have not been there."

"I see... It looks like my defence wasn't absolute after all..." with that he fell down and closed his eyes for good.

* * *

Meanwhile Gai was still locked in combat with the Jonin, who turned out to be quite proficient with fire-attacks. He had tried to move in closer several times but he never gotten in more than a few hits before he was forced to move away again. He noticed that the other battles had stopped and looked back at his students. He was relieved to see that both of them had won their battles and saw Hinata healing some of Sasuke's wounds which he had suffered from the earlier explosion.

"It looks like my worthless team couldn't even finish of some Genin!" The captain said in disgust looking at his defeated comrades, "at least their sacrifice allows me to do the job for them"

He went through several handseals and launched a massive fire ball at Sasuke and Hinata's back "Firestyle: grand Fireball!".

Gai realized the danger and acted immediately by opening the inner gates. "first gate: open!" he shouted and literally disappeared from view in pure speed. He reappeared in the path of the fireball and swatted it away with the air pressure from his attacks. "That was a most unyouthful attack!" he said to the the captain, "I cannot forgive you for trying to kill my students. Prepare to die! Second gate: open!" With that he disappeared again and before the captain realized what was going on Gai launched him upwards with a bone-shattering kick right in his now broken jaw. Gai appeared behind him and grabbed his body in a full nelson "hidden leaf style: Primary Lotus!" he shouted while dropping the captain head first towards the ground.

'Primary what now?' where the last words that went through the captains head before he crashed into the ground and broke his neck on impact.

* * *

After checking on Hinata and Sasuke, Gai went through the captains pouch and found what he was looking for: a scroll with the info on the escaped prisoner and their supposed 'monster'.

"Let's see what we have here." Gai read from the scroll, "escaped prisoner... male... his name is Jugo apparently... aha: he possesses a rare bloodline that allows him to absorb natural energy involuntarily. He naturally has a calm nature however sudden surges in natural energy can overpower his senses and cause him to go berserk. He is known to have lost control several times and killed people before. He approached Orochimaru on his own volition, hoping the Sannin could help him, instead he was used for experiments to better understand the way his clan accesses natural energy."

"That is horrible!" Hinata said, remembering the time she got kidnapped by Kumo agents for her bloodline.

"Indeed it is." Gai replied, "It is our duty to help him, we better go find Naruto."

* * *

Meanwhile Naruto was having his own set of problems. After he managed to awaken Jugo the guy went insane. Those black marks had spread all over his body and the giant guy started attacking him mercilessly. **"I'm going to kill you!" **he screamed, "**I'm going to kill everybody!**"

'Great, you try to help someone and he turns out to be a crazy psychopath that wants to kill everybody.' Naruto thought while dodging and blocking the giant's attacks. "Wind style: great storm!" Naruto said while a focused storm of wind blew relentlessly at the incoming juggernaut. For a second it seemed to hold him but then his body mutated again and several jet-like appendages sprouted on his back and started shooting beams of pure chakra giving him a speedboost to break through the wind-storm.

One he got in close his arm mutated again to form a piston which he used to increase his attack power. Naruto held up his combatgloves and focused chakra into them to harden the material and then held them in front of him to form a makeshift solid steel shield. The gloves managed to hold back the mutated punch and Naruto threw a few punches of himself at Jugo's face before his opponent threw him away.

After falling down on the ground hard Naruto tried collecting his thoughts on how to defeat the berserker. 'I can't win with strength alone and even my wind techniques aren't powerful enough to damage him. Also I have a feeling he hasn't really shown me all the power he has at this point and I don't want to find out just what he can do.' He rolled out of the way to dodge an incoming Jugo who shattered the ground he just stood on.

'I suppose I can hit him with the claws or the hidden blade, but I don't want to kill him. He is a victim after all.' he ducked under Jugo's arms, which mutated again and now resembled scythes, while punching him in the stomach several times.

'At this rate it's just a matter of time before he gets in a lucky shot and decapitates me.' he narrowly avoided another swipe from the scythe-arms and kicked him in the jaw hard, though it seemed to only enrage him further.

'A paralysing tag would work, but I don't have any prepared. I do have some explosive tags left though.' He lifted both combatgloves in their hardened state to stop an axekick from Jugo, but it still launched him away with the sheer power behind it.

'Looks like I don't have a choice then: a paralysing tag it is.' He created two shadow clones that immediately moved out of the way and started working on a new paralysing tag. Luckily he also gotten quite good at making them and he figured all he had to do was keep the man busy for no more than two minutes whilst his clones worked on the tag.

'They're not good for combat, with them expelling in one hit and all, but they are handy sometimes if you need an extra pair of hands.' he thought to himself.

Naruto spent the next two minutes dodging Jugo's attacks and throwing some of his own at the giant, though they didn't seem to slow him down in his enraged state. When one of his clones dispelled to let him know the tag was finished he set his plan in motion.

He grabbed two explosive tags from his pouch and placed them on the ground before him. Then he captured Jugo's attention by using an "Air Bullet". When the giant ran at him to clobber him to death, he let the tags explode to blind him with the dirt that sprung up. He moved in to punch him in the face as hard as he could and when Jugo turned to take his revenge the second clone appeared from behind him and placed the tag between his shoulder blades, paralysing him and making him lose consciousness at last. He noticed that the dark spots retreated and his face looked normal again.

"I'm glad that is over. If I didn't study seals I doubt I would have won that battle." Naruto said in relief, "anyway, it's time to take this big guy back home. Gai-sensei must be waiting for us."

Naruto and the clone picked up Jugo's body and carried him back to their rendezvous point.

"They're useless in combat but damn it, I sure love shadow clones" he said with a smile.

* * *

A/N:

The mystery monster is Jugo, who saw this coming? Well apparently everyone did, so there goes that surprise. :(

Also the Genin with the sound-device isn't Dosu, but he does have the same device. I figured Orochimaru isn't going to make something like that and then just hand it to exactly one Genin. I'm guessing he would make several copies of such a weapon.

What did you guys think of the first real fight-scenes though? I don't think I'm really good at capturing action in words yet, so give your honest opinion and all tips on how to improve are welcome.

Finally: I managed to make the deadline in time (my flight takes off literally in 6 hours) but I'm taking a break now. Expect the next update in August because I'll be without internet these next few weeks.

please R&R


	7. Infiltrating the base

Note: I do not own Naruto

**07 – Infiltrating the base  
**

Once the battle was over and team Gai got back to their chambers they started the interrogation of Jugo. Naruto slowly lowered the intensity of the seal he used until Jugo was awake enough to answer the questions but still adequately sedated to stop him from going berserk again.

They learnt that Jugo came from a clan in Kirigakure that was one of the first victims of their bloodline purge. Jugo miraculously escaped that day and ended up being adopted by a surrogate family that didn't know he had a bloodline. But without the specialised training to help him master and control the raw emotions that his ability generated as a side-effect, he easily became overwhelmed and had ended up killing his caretakers in a state of bloodlust that put him on Yagura's radar.

After fleeing the Land of Water he tried to get help and had ended up being found by Orochimaru. Being unaware that the Sannin had betrayed Konoha he trusted him to find a way to help him control his powers, but he soon found himself a prisoner instead. Jugo explained that the snake-nin was already working on a way to recreate his clan's abilities in a seal he could place on his henchmen to make them stronger. But his own attempts were too unstable to be of use and the death-rate was too high to be a feasible weapon. That's why Orochimaru experimented on him to try and find ways to stabilise his seal and make it safer for use.

However one month ago he managed to escape when a new guard had underestimated his strength and thought he wasn't a threat. Using his bloodline he killed the guard and made a run for it. By the time he had regained his senses he found himself wounded from the fight and on the run with the team of three ninja on his tail. Knowing he had little choice he ran for the nearest border, the Land of Fire. And the rest of the story is known.

* * *

After hearing this story Gai decided that Jugo was not to be blamed for his actions and he wanted to bring him back to Konoha so he could finally receive the treatment he had needed all this time.

However they still needed to handle the mayor who was insistent that Jugo needed to be tried instead seeing as he was the criminal responsible for the break-ins. His argument was that he paid good money for Konoha to see justice done and the people of his town wouldn't be satisfied with letting him go, no matter what sob story he had. Gai countered by pointing out that the standard contract he signed had a clause that says Konoha reserved all rights towards military assets, which included people with bloodlines, and that the original mission parameters only hired them to solve the crimes and put a stop to them and never spoke of making sure the criminal was actually tried in his courtroom.

Eventually they came to an agreement. In exchange for a 20% discount on his contract the mayor would put all the blame on the three dead ninja that were the talk of the town (after all having a shinobi-battle in the merchant's district tends to be noticed) and he would let Jugo slip under the radar since Naruto's battle took place in a deserted field were nobody saw them. Gai was appalled by this 'most unyouthful behaviour' but didn't press any further. Getting Jugo safe to Konoha was more important than dealing with this haggling bastard. And so team Gai left in the dead of night, to make sure nobody of the town saw the extra person that ran alongside them.

* * *

Hokage's office, one week later:

"Hokage-sama, I am here with the report on Jugo."

"Ah, Ibiki come in," said the elderly man, "So what did you find out?"

"We looked into his clan and it seems they were another victim of Yagura's insane crusade. It's only because he wasn't in Kiri when they struck that he survived. There are no other known survivors or if they exist, they are in hiding and won't come out any time soon."

"I see, I will inform the boy myself. And what about my old student? What part did he play in all of this?"

"It seems that Jugo's bloodline has several similarities with the cursed seal he designed and put on Anko. Based on the boy's testimony about the nature of the tests it seems Orochimaru tried to stabilize his own design to increase the odds of success."

"Did he succeed?"

"That's hard to say based on the boy's vague descriptions. But It looks like the tests were still going on when he fled so it would appear that he still needed him. My guess is that he was still working on it and hasn't succeeded yet."

"I hope you are correct. Did he know the location of the lab he was imprisoned in?"

"From what he told me there were several labs and they kept moving him around every few weeks. While he didn't know where he was exactly, he did gave a pretty good description of the environment that allowed our trackers to narrow things down a lot. Kakashi has sent several teams of ANBU to investigate the different possibilities, hopefully one of them will find something that could help us smoke this snake out."

"And what about the boy himself? Do you think we can find a place for him in our forces?"

"From Naruto's report it's clear the boy is quite strong. But he hasn't received a day of proper training in his life and that is holding him back for the moment. And it's already too late to sent him through the academy at his age."

"No, the academy wouldn't be a good idea. But perhaps a Jonin can apprentice him and give him a crash course in being a shinobi? It's not like there is nothing to work with, he just needs to be roughed around the edges a little to make a great assault-type ninja."

"Anko did always wanted a team, but until now the council has blocked her application every year because of her former sensei."

"Yes, if it were up to me I'd let her try out a team immediately. Everyone can see that Anko is nothing like my old student, if only the civilian council would give her a fair chance. But then again..."

"What are you thinking, lord Hokage?"

"Technically apprenticeships don't count as being a regular Jonin-sensei. Therefore this is purely a shinobi-matter and the decision rests with me. It's not really a team but I think Anko can finally become a sensei after all." the Hokage said with a smile.

* * *

Meanwhile in Naruto's room:

"Hey Naruto, can I speak with you for a moment?"

"Sure thing Kakashi-sensei." said Naruto as he held his door open for the commander of ANBU to enter his apartment.

"Naruto, I'm not your sensei anymore. Stop calling me that."

"You might not be my team leader anymore but you will always be one of my senseis. Anyway what are you here for?"

"Well, I read the report of your latest mission and I have some questions about things I didn't really understood. Especially about the way you captured this Jugo, could you tell me some more about that?"

"Well since we had to detain him for questioning I had to capture him alive so I used a paralysis tag to subdue him."

"Yes the report said you made a tag during the fight?"

"yes, I ran out of paralysis tags so I made a shadow clone to make a new one while I kept him busy. Then after a minute or two the clone stepped back in and used it on him." Naruto said with a smile.

"Let me get this straight: you made a clone?"

"A shadow clone."

"A shadow clone, yes... And while you two were still in the middle of a fight this clone stepped aside and started working on a seal?"

"yes."

"for two whole minutes?"

"That's how long it takes to make a paralysis tag."

"..."

"Huh, Kakashi, is something wrong?"

"Is something wrong? 'Is something wrong?' he asks. Kami! Naruto, that plan is just crazy!" Kakashi said incredulously.

"It worked fine. What's wrong with it?"

You were lucky that Jugo was in a berserker state at the time you fought because there is no way in hell that plan would have worked in any other situation. Real opponents do not just let a clone sit at the side for two minutes creating seals! Any real opponent would have seen through the diversion immediately and would have went straight for the clone."

"oh yeah," Naruto said while scratching the back of his head an giving Kakashi a grin, "I guess I got lucky huh?"

"Naruto, this is not a laughing matter." Kakashi said sternly, "What did I teach you about luck?"

"Being lucky will save you once, being prepared will save you everyday." Naruto repeated one of the lessons the ANBU drilled in his head.

"Exactly, therefore it is crucial that we prepare you properly for these types of missions. I talked it over with Gai and together we found just the jutsu you need to help you out when you ever need to detain a person again without using lethal force."

"Really? A new jutsu? That sounds awesome, what is it Kakashi-sensei?"

"You are going to like this one," Kakashi said while taking a black scroll with the Uzumaki-symbol on it from one of the pouches in his flack jacket, "This jutsu actually belonged to your mother and according to what your dad told me it helped her greatly in controlling the Kyuubi's chakra."

"Really? That seems great, what is it Kakashi-sensei?"

"They are called chakra-chains and the technique allows to user to sprout chains made of chakra from his body, which can be used to hold and detain opponents in a non-lethal way. They also allow you to drain the chakra from your opponent and absorb it. This second function is what allowed her to control the Kyuubi's chakra for herself"

"Oh man, I can't wait to test these things out, can you show me how it's done now Kakashi-sensei?"

"No I'm afraid I can't do that."

"What? Why not?"

"Because I don't know the technique myself. See while the technique is not a bloodline, it is a clan-specific technique much like the Nara's shadow manipulation or the Yamanaka's mind-jutsus. And one of Konoha's laws specifically states that any outsider is forbidden from using these techniques. See a lot of clans were wary to be sharing their techniques in a village with the Uchiha and their Sharingan eyes. Therefore the founding chapter of Konoha protects certain techniques and copyrights them so to speak. And even though I am not an Uchiha myself, I do possess a Sharingan thus I am bound by the same laws."

"So then why am I allowed to learn it then?"

"Because you are an Uzumaki and are therefore allowed to learn your own clan-techniques of course."

"You mean this is one the Uzumaki-clan's certified techniques?" Naruto said excitedly.

"yes, didn't you read all of those scrolls I gave you when you graduated?"

"I skimmed them." Naruto said sheepishly.

Kakashi sighed at his unofficial apprentice's ways "Anyway, you better start training on those chains. Once you are able to summon them without handsigns Gai will see how they can be integrated in your fighting style."

"I will Kakashi-sensei."

"I'm looking forward to it." The ANBU-commander said with one of his eye-smiles.

* * *

During the course of the following months Naruto spent his time in between missions training with the chakra-chains technique until he could spawn them from his arms without seals. He was still far from using the more advanced techniques like using them to create a barrier or manipulating multiple ones at the same time, but the simple chains could be easily used by the end of the first month. After working it over with Gai, the taijutsu-expert devised a way to integrate them into his fighting style and Naruto quickly got the hang of it. Even Hinata, who always had been the expert in close combat found the chains pretty hard to deal with since once you got caught they started draining chakra and you had to be fast in your escape or risk chakra-exhaustion.

Eventually the ANBU-teams that scouted the possible locations of Orochimaru's bases returned and the next day teams 7 and 9 were summoned in the Hokage's office for their next mission.

"I'll get right to the point." Kakashi said to the gathered teams and the Hokage, "These last few months the ANBU scouted several of the locations we derived from Jugo's testimony. And while most places turned out to be dead ends or there was a base but it had been deserted for a while, we did find two bases that are still in operation."

"You found my old student's location?" Asked the Hokage.

"That's a negative" sir. Orochimau himself didn't show up at either location, but we did find signs that the bases are in use. So he might still be running some of his experiments there. Jugo mentioned he saw other prisoners from Kiri from time to time, maybe some of them are in one of these bases and we could save them."

"There are more innocent people being experimented upon? That is most unyouthful! We must liberate them at once and restore their youthful spirits!" Exclaimed the always enthusiastic sensei of team seven.

"Take it easy, Gai." Said the Hokage as he took a scroll from the desk and tossed it to Hayate, "Now on to the actual mission. The ANBU reported that one of the bases houses the prisoners and is heavily defended with several known Jonin-level ninja while the other is more of a smaller research site that has only a few grunts guarding it. Therefore we are going to split the teams up a little differently."

"What do you mean Lord Hokage?" asked Hayate.

"I mean that the prison-site is too dangerous for Genin to infiltrate. Therefore you, alongside Gai and the initial ANBU-squad will go there. The research-site shouldn't be too much of a problem so your Genin-squads will handle it alone."

"Understood lord Hokage, cough cough We will carry out our mission."

* * *

2 weeks later at the outskirts of Orochimaru's base, 2 A.M.:

The six Genin stood together and went over the plan one final time. Each of them was ordered to forgo their usual attire in favour of a pitch-black outfit with a facemask and a hood to make sure they were as stealthy as possible.

"Now remember: this is a stealth-mission." Said Neji who, as rookie of the year, was appointed as teamleader. "That means no flashy moves, no explosions, and try to take the guards out silently and from behind. Got it?"

Everyone nodded that they understood.

"Good, then move out. Team seven will enter from the West entrance and we will go in from the North."

Five minutes later Hinata, Sasuke and Naruto were in position looking down at their targets. Hidden inside an inconspicuous looking shack was a trapdoor towards the base. Hinata used her Byakugan to look at the guards outside "I see three guards in total, two are outside talking to each other and the other one is inside the shack taking a nap."

"I'll capture them in an illusion, but if they are decently trained then it won't take long for them to notice and break free. So you have about 10 seconds to go in and silence them." Sasuke said while Naruto and Hinata nodded.

Once the guards were captured in Sasuke's illusion Naruto and Hinata moved out. Hinata appeared by the guard on the left and used her Gentle Fist to strike his heart, killing him instantly. Naruto meanwhile appeared behind the guard on the right and used the hidden blade on his combat gloves to pierce through the guard's armour and straight into his inner organs. Unfortunately he missed his heart and the guard wasn't dead yet, he tried to scream out in pain but Naruto raised his other arm and a chain sprouted from his wrist to wrap around the guard's throat and stop the screaming. After struggling for several seconds the guard finally succumbed to his injuries and passed away.

"The guard inside is still sleeping." Hinata confirmed. She silently went towards him and another precise strike at his heart made sure he would never wake up again.

"That was that, now let's go inside." said Sasuke as he approached the hidden trapdoor.

"Wait!" Said Naruto as he stopped him, "There is a seal hidden on the lock over there." while pointing at a small blotch of ink that most people would just glance over.

"Any idea what it does?"

"It seems to be a simple alarm-seal that will alert our presence to the entire base unless a specific deactivation seal is presented. Check the guards, one of them should have the counter-seal on him."

After checking the three dead guards Naruto found the seal he was looking for tattooed on the guard's left hand. "I'm sorry buddy, but I'm going to need this more than you do right now." he said after using his blade to cut of the guard's hand and used the seal to safely deactivate the trapdoor.

"We better alert Neji-niisan about this seal." Hinata said, "Their entrance will probably have one too and it wouldn't do if they missed theirs and alerted anyone anyway."

"Good idea, I'll contact them now." Said Sasuke who was wearing the team's radio round his neck. He pushed a button and started talking into the microphone "team Nine, do you copy? Over."

"This is team Nine, we hear you loud and clear." Tenten's voice sounded from the radio, "What is your situation? Over."

"We dealt with the guards on our side and discovered a seal hidden on the trapdoor. If you find a cross-like insignia on the trapdoor you need to deactivate it with a counter-seal one of the guards should be carrying. Over"

"Good thing you contacted us, we almost missed it. Hang on a minute."

"Roger, send a message once you are ready to enter from your side, over."

After about a minute of silence the radio croaked again "Team nine is ready to commence, We found the counter-seal and have successfully opened the trapdoor on our side. Get ready to begin the operation."

Both teams entered the base simultaneously and started their mission. Using their respective Byakugan-user as a guide they easily evaded the few patrolling guards of the night-shift and silently took them out one by one using the element of surprise. As they went deeper underground into the base they searched every small lab or storage room they entered and sealed away all the documents they encountered for the intelligence-division to analyse later. They also placed several high-grade explosive tags on key-locations to completely destroy the base once they were out. Naruto "accidentally" ruined one of these tags and decided that since it was now worthless he might as well keep it to study later. Hinata and Sasuke both rolled their eyes at his bad acting but didn't comment either way.

Three hours, fifty dead guards, 200 activated explosive tags and one thousand sealed away documents later both teams once again met up at the lowest level of the base. Neji estimated that they must be about 200 metres underground at that point since he could barely see the surface with his Byakugan at maximum range. There was now only one door left. One of the guards they killed earlier was carrying a master key, so getting in wasn't a problem. Yet they decided to not take unnecessary risks and play this one by the book.

"Do you see anything behind the door?"

Neji and Hinata used their all-seeing eyes to look beyond the steel door and into the room behind it "It's another laboratory of sorts. There is no guard or doctor in the room but I do see a large concentration of chakra in one of the tubes in the back."

"Any idea what it is?"

"It's hard to tell. It looks like some sort of fluid but it has a chakra network. I've never seen anything like it."

"Well, we're not going to find out by standing here. Let's go inside."

The six ninjas opened the door of the lab and started searching the place for valuables. Naruto and Neji went straight to the back where a giant canister filled with water was placed against the wall.

"So this is where the chakra is coming from?" asked Naruto.

"Yes." replied Neji while studying the canister and its context with his Byakugan.

"Why would they lace the water with chakra though? What use could that have?"

"They didn't lace the water with chakra. It appears that the water has its own internal chakra-source, almost as if it were alive. I've never seen anything like it."

Neji took a closer look and suddenly noticed something "Hey, there appears to be a seal here. Do you know what it does?"

Naruto looked at the small seal that was placed onto the canister and recognized it immediately. "Yes, This is a standard paralysis seal. It is used to keep prisoners sedated. But why would they put such a seal on water? That makes no sense..."

"That's because it's not water." Lee's voice suddenly interrupted their conversation.

"What do you mean: 'It's not water' ? It sure looks like water to me."

"Take a look at these documents the scientists were working on." The swordsman said while handing him a scroll he found a few minutes earlier. "All of these documents are about the Hozuki-clan. It's another one of the bloodline-clans from Kiri. According to this they were researching something called the 'hydrification'-technique. It's a bloodline that allows them to literally turn parts of their body into water."

"Water? So that means that..."

"... this canister isn't water at all." Neji finished the sentence for him. "If this is actually a living person then that explains why there is a chakra-source in the water."

"So what do we do with him?" Lee asked.

"We wake him up." Naruto said without hesitation.

"I don't know if that is such a good idea though. The Hozuki-clan weren't exactly allies."

"I didn't say we should trust him immediately but we can't let him stay here when we are going to blow up this whole place! Besides, now that Kiri no longer welcomes bloodlines he is bound to re-evaluate his loyalties. Konoha won't sound so bad to him now I bet."

Seeing as the other two weren't convinced he decided to compromise "Look how about this: we get him out of here and bring him back for the Hokage to decide what to do with him. Konoha could always use a powerful clan like the Hozuki."

"That's not a bad idea, let's do that." Neji decided.

And so half an hour later the six Genin stood on the hill overlooking the base with the still unconscious man they just rescued on Lee's back. Naruto used the handseals Kakashi showed him and detonated all the explosive tags they placed around the base simultaneously resulting in a giant tremor as the entire underground structure collapsed. Afterwards they went back to the meeting spot were their senseis would be waiting for them after they finished their own mission.

* * *

Hokage's office: mission debriefing.

"So Hayate, I take it your mission wasn't a success?" Asked the Hokage.

"No sir, by the time we arrived at the base it was already abandoned. We went inside to look for clues they might have left behind but it seems they were very thorough. We didn't find anything."

"I see, that's too bad. But if you don't mind me asking: where is Gai?"

Naruto stepped forward with an embarrassed look on his face and explained their sensei's weird behaviour "Gai-sensei was so upset about failing his mission that he is running three hundred laps around Konoha on his hands. He should be done with that shortly."

"..."

"So anyway," Kakashi said to break the uneasy silence that had fallen over the room, "your base wasn't abandoned yet, am I correct."

"Indeed, Kakashi-sama" said Neji, "our base was still in operation when we broke in. Together we have secured over 1000 scrolls and documents with various research on it. It is currently being looked at by the intelligence-division. We also managed to liberate one prisoner."

"Another bloodline-user being experimented upon?"

"Yes sir, he is a member of the Hozuki-clan. When we found him he was in a bad shape. He is currently in the hospital being treated from severe chakra-exhaustion and other signs of malnourishment. But he seems to recover quite well and Ibiki is talking to him as we speak."

"Very well, I will hear from him soon then. Anything else to report?"

"No sir, after rescuing the prisoner we blew up the base and made our way to the meeting point."

"All right then. You are dismissed. The payments for the mission will be deposited in your bank accounts as usual."

Everyone gave a small bow and left leaving only the Hokage and Kakashi behind.

"They handled that mission very well, don't you think so, Kakashi?"

"Yes, sir. They grew a lot this past year."

"I still don't understand why Gai and Hayate didn't sign them up for the Chunin exams. I believe they were ready for it."

"Knowing Gai he probably likes to make sure all of them were absolutely ready. He isn't the type to sign them up just for trying or to give himself a holiday, like some teachers do. I'm sure he will let them participate next time when it's being held in Konoha. And when he does I have a feeling they will make Chunin on their first try."

"And Hayate's team?"

"I don't know. He probably didn't want to be the only one who sent a rookie-team." Kakashi shrugged.

"Good something else now. As you know the academy will have another batch of graduates ready next week. Do you still think Mizuki will be up to something?"

"We found his name in one of the scrolls we took from Orochimaru. Apparently he contacted him three months ago. He promised he could get the forbidden scroll in exchange for power. He plans on framing some academy student while he runs off with the scroll."

"Do we know who?"

"No, he hasn't given any specifics. At this point it could be anybody. Without knowing the specifics it'll be hard to gather the evidence to arrest him."

"Maybe we can force his hand towards a specific student." The Hokage pondered while handing Kakashi a file.

Kakashi read the file and pondered about its contents "You think it will work?"

"Mizuki never did manage to let go of the past. This will be a target he can't refuse if we set things up right."

"Now all we have to do is convince him to play along." Kakashi said while looking at the file.

* * *

A/N: Well, I'm back from my holidays and have started writing again.

This chapter takes place over the course of many months, so just imagine that all the downtime is spent training and doing regular missions. I only focused on the important parts since all the things I wanted to do in the extra year are now done.

As you can see starting next chapter we will catch up with the start of canon, beginning with the rest of the rookies graduating and Mizuki planning his defection.

Now something else: I have some special plans for the Chunin exams (3-4 chapters from now) to shake things up. If you have an original idea for a possible test or exam write it down in your review or sent me a PM. If I like your idea I will use it and give you an honourable mention.

Anyway, next update is planned on monday in two weeks.

Please R&R


	8. The new Genin of the Hidden Leaf

Note: I do not own Naruto.

**Chapter 08 – The new Genin of the leaf.**

'5...4...3...2..1...'

Mizuki was counting the seconds down in his head until he could finally sent these brats in his class home. He hated working in the academy. Some people like Iruka liked this job it since it was low-risk with set hours and a steady income, but he hated it with a passion. For one it was a dead end for his ninja-career since being in the academy meant you were stuck there for at least a year without any chance for promotion to Jonin or any chance to get exciting missions that look good on your record. And even amongst the other Chunin it was laughed at, it didn't pay nearly as good as doing a few B-rank missions and you never had any interesting stories to tell or brag about. Also he was a man of action dammit! He wasn't meant to be stuck in a room with children trying for the hundredth time to explain how a Clone works, he was meant to be out on the field! Fighting the enemy, protecting important documents, guarding nobles and rich merchants,maybe getting some action with a hot civilian woman you saved now and then... those were the good old times, not babysitting brats!

But at least it would all be over soon. One more week and his plan was ready to be put into action. He still couldn't believe how fast everything went. Three months ago he was suddenly contacted by none other than Orochimaru himself! While most of his colleagues would have alerted the Hokage immediately he sensed a golden opportunity instead. He always believed that Orochimaru was treated unfairly: sure there were some casualties to his methods, but didn't his research produce great results? Didn't he always found new jutsus or new methods to help them in the war were others failed? He thought Konoha hand shunned one of their greatest geniuses too easily. Yes, 50 orphans died. But the one who lived inherited the first Hokage's wood style! The wood-style! He single-handedly revived one of Konoha's greatest bloodlines that were lost to the village and how do they repay him? They complain because some stupid orphans died in the process and he is sentenced to dead! Who cares about orphans anyway? You can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs he always reasoned.

And now Orochimaru, THE Orochimaru, wanted him. He promised him power and a position of Jonin in his private forces: how could he not agree to that? What did the Hokage promise him? Another year of teaching stupid spoiled civilian kids how to throw a kunai without killing themselves? Well woop-di-fucking-doo the choice was easy if you asked him. True, he had to give something in return but he understood that. There is no such thing as a free meal, that's the way it works. In order to get what he was promised he needed to steal Konoha's forbidden scroll. Now most people would consider this a suicide-mission but he knew better: after years of peace the village got lax with their security. Especially the night of the graduation ceremony is an ideal time to strike: Most available Jonin were obligated to be a part of the meeting where the teams were divided and many of the retired Shinobi would be joining in on the various celebrations since every team celebrated its own anniversary. After months of research and preparation he found the location of the scroll, the list of ANBU on guard that night (the bare minimum) and the routes of their patrol. He planned that with good timing and decent skills anyone, even a failed academy student, could realistically get their hands on the scroll.

The tricky part was escaping with the scroll afterwards. In order to safely get away he needed to reach the border with the Land of Tea where he would meet his contact. But that was a three-day trip no matter how you looked at it. He knew he was pretty good, too good to be stuck in this hellhole for certain, but he couldn't evade the ANBU and the tracking squads for three days while carrying the scroll on his back.

He couldn't... unless he had a sizeable head-start that is. And for that he needed a distraction or more specifically a scapegoat. He looked around the class looking for someone to take the fall while he made off with the scroll. By the time they figured out he was innocent his trail would have hopefully gone cold already. Now the only question was: who will he pick?

It needed to be someone that would cause a loud enough uproar to distract the village, so that would mean he couldn't just pick a random civilian kid, it needs to be a member of one of the clans. Luckily this year there were plenty to chose from.

"Iruka, Mizuki, do you have a moment?"

He was suddenly disrupted from his thoughts and turned towards the man who called out to him. It was Abaki Arame, the principal of the academy alongside the Hokage himself. Putting on his mask and pretending he wasn't just planning on stealing the Forbidden Scroll he followed Iruka to the principals office.

Five minutes later he was back on his way home and he couldn't believe his luck. The Hokage informed him that they recently had a new bloodline-user in the village that wanted to join their forces. Since the kid had prior training he was allowed to try the exam directly without spending time in the academy. Now what really interested him was learning that it was a member of the Hozuki-clan. He remembered the stories of how his grandfather was killed by a Hozuki in the second Shinobi-war. True, he wasn't even born back then but he still resented the clan for it, even if this kid couldn't have possibly been involved. But soon he would have his revenge since he now had the perfect scapegoat for his plan. 'Kami must be smiling on me' he thought.

* * *

"Cheers!"

All around the village people raised their cups and enjoyed the celebrations. For today was the day of the graduation and it was a tradition in hidden villages to celebrate a teams anniversary on this day rather than the actual day and month a team was formed. As such many teams were celebrating today: from the youngest Genin-teams who celebrated their first year to the veteran-teams like the original Ino-Shika-Cho team who had been together for several decades. Even the Hokage's old team (which according to the old man himself was actually formed in the winter) had come together earlier today to have a few drinks in celebration.

As such the security was at an all-time low with only the bare minimum of ANBU patrolling the walls and even less in internal positions like the Hokage Tower's storage room. In other words it was perfect for someone to sneak inside and get a hold of village secrets that would have been infinitely better guarded on any other day.

With that in mind Mizuki had started his plan to steal the Forbidden Scroll from the Hokage Tower. Earlier today he had abused his position as teacher to make sure that the Hozuki-kid had failed his graduation-exam.

* * *

Flashback:

The written exam was made up of questions specifically selected to be about very precise parts of Konoha's history and traditions. The other students who were born and raised in Konoha had no problem with them, in fact Sakura had once again scored a perfect 100, but to an outsider who had spent less than a week in the village it was impossible. His score of 40 was actually pretty good given the circumstances but it wasn't enough.

During the taijutsu exam he deliberately fought him a lot harder than he was supposed to, yet he was careful enough to made it look like he held back. As a result Iruka barely passed him on that part even though he had to admit the kid was easily as good as the Inuzuka if not better.

And finally the ninjutsu part, which at this point had required a perfect score to pass, was also sabotaged by spiking his water bottle with an odourless and tasteless chakra-disrupting poison. He was surprised the kid managed to pull of a Henge and a Substitution under these circumstances but the Clone-jutsu which required very precise control proved to be too much for him and Iruka was forced to fail him.

Afterwards it was as easy as approaching the kid and telling him Konoha had a make-up exam in case someone just had bad luck. He gave the kid specific orders to infiltrate the Hokage Tower and steal some scroll as part of a simulated mission. The kid's eyes filled with hope and he swallowed it all without question. Mizuki couldn't help but crack a smile as he saw him running towards his destination.

End flashback.

* * *

Now Mizuki was standing hidden outside the Hokage Tower and he looked to see if his plan would work. After it became dark he finally noticed someone sneaking into the tower.

'Good,' he thought, 'he is hiding very well. If I didn't know he would show up I would have missed him completely. That means the Chunin on guard won't notice him until it's too late.'

With that he turned around and went to a safe distance; no need to let himself be seen around the tower when it's being robbed after all. He walked around the streets a bit, joined a few of his colleagues in a drink or two and congratulated a few of his students that passed him in their own celebrations (all part of keeping up the act and establishing an alibi, he couldn't care less about those stupid kids and the sooner he could dump this place the better). All the while he kept himself ready for the real event later that night 'Just a few more hours till everybody is heading home and I can move unseen to our meeting point and get out of here.' He smiled and raised his glass for another drink. Tea of course, he couldn't afford to be drunk on sake tonight.

* * *

Later that night Naruto and Sasuke were walking back home after having spent the day celebrating at Hinata's house. Since the Hyuga compound was by far the largest of their three houses Hiashi had invited them over. Neji had received a similar offer but had refused it so team nine had gathered in one of the bars and restaurants to celebrate.

"Iz not fair." Sasuke mumbled while seeking support on Naruto's shoulder, "You drank more than me and you are j-j-just fine."

Naruto had indeed been drinking quite a lot that night but since the Kyuubi broke the alcohol in his blood down before it had a chance to reach his brain he was perfectly sober. The same couldn't be said for his two teammates though. This would be a night both of them would rather forget; of course as a good friend it was his job to make sure they never did. He smiled as he thought back at everything that took place:

* * *

6 hours earlier:

Naruto, Sasuke and Gai arrived at the Hyuga compound, each wearing their best clothes. Even Gai had changed out of his green jumpsuit for once and wore a pretty nice suit. It was quite a shock to see him wearing decent clothes for once and even the ever stoic Kakashi lost his composure when he passed them in the hall. After a woman from the branch-family took their coats (and flirted with Gai a bit now that he actually looked decent) they were led to the main hall. Inside Hinata was waiting for them wearing a very beautiful and obviously expensive dress.

After that Hiashi introduced them to his old teammates: Shirui Yamanaka alongside his wife and Tsume Inuzuka and her canine partner Kuromaru. The dog was, as far as Hinata knew, the only animal that was ever allowed to walk freely inside the main house. Of course the fact that the animal was properly trained, knew how to talk and had saved Hiashi's life several times on missions had a lot to do with that.

After a small diner the gathered guests started reminiscing about the past year and various memorable missions they did during their career. (including a rather funny story about Shirui once using his mind-technique to take over Hiashi and making him strip to his underwear before entering the ladies side of the hotsprings. The latter was not amused and claimed he never quite recovered from the beating his father gave him that day.)

Around midnight there was some commotion when Neji returned covered in bruises and sporting a black eye. When asked what had happened he simply responded that "Lee is forbidden from drinking alcohol now." and went to his room to get some well needed rest.

As the night went on Naruto drank from the sake without really paying attention at how much was supposed to be normal for a kid his age. He didn't realize that the alcohol in his blood was being purged faster than humanly possible and that he should have been getting pretty drunk under normal circumstances. Sasuke and Hinata, who also never drank Sake before, went along with Naruto not realizing that they were fighting a battle they couldn't hope to win against the jinchuriki.

And so when Naruto was in the middle of describing their first real mission to Kyoku it happened that Hinata suddenly fell face first on Sasuke's lap. As if that position wasn't embarrassing enough for the both of them she started vomiting all over his clothes. While Naruto couldn't stop laughing and Sasuke desperately tried to get their female teammate to sit up again Hiashi decided that it was better to put an end to the night. Before the words completely left his mouth two maidens from the branch-house seemed to appear out of nowhere and gently got the heiress out of the room, washed her up, gave her an aspirin and put her to bed with a level of efficiency that betrayed that it wasn't the first time they had to clean up a member of the main house after a night of drinking.

* * *

And so Naruto helped his 'not drunk, but just tired' teammate to his flat and threw him in his bed in a much more crude way than Hinata was gently placed to sleep.

Since Naruto wasn't tired yet and there was still plenty of activity in Konoha he decided to go to Ichiraku's for a late night snack. Even though he ate a pretty healthy diet, which helped a lot with his growth as he was now amongst the tallest of his generation, he still had a soft spot for ramen and went to the ramen stand at least once a week for a short snack.

Upon entering Ichiraku's he saw Kiba and Choji eating several bowls of ramen with Shikamaru sitting next to them. A quick glance at their forehead protectors showed that they were amongst the ones lucky enough to pass the test and were now celebrating. He knew there was still a second test that would fail most of the ones who passed today but he decided not to ruin their moment of glory. Besides he had bet good money that the three of them alongside Shino would be one of the people that were going to pass so he was feeling confident that he was looking at future colleagues of his. After congratulating them and ordering a beef ramen he sat down and they started catching up. Apparently Shino earned the title of Rookie of the Year ever since Naruto and Sasuke had already graduated a year sooner. They also mentioned that some new guy from Kiri tried graduating alongside them but that he failed.

'tried graduating?' Naruto thought to himself, 'I was pretty sure that guy we saved had been an active ninja for more than a year already. He said so himself when we visited him in the hospital. Why would the old man let him retake the exam again instead of just placing him on a team? And how did he end up failing in the first place? I know he is easily stronger than Kiba...'

Just when he was about to ask Kiba more he noticed the sign for a silent alert so he quickly apologized to his, not-yet-fully graduated, friends and went to the Hokage Tower to see if his village needed him.

Upon entering the tower he noticed that there were only a handful ninja there, mostly Jonin and Chunin with him being the only Genin. He guessed the majority was too drunk or too preoccupied to notice the silent signal. He quickly recognized his old academy teacher Mizuki and went over to ask what was going on.

* * *

Mizuki couldn't believe his luck. First he successfully fooled that stupid kid into stealing the scroll while he had an airtight alibi. Then after the kid pulled it off the alarm when mostly unnoticed so that the first-response team was understaffed and he could easily get the entire Northern forest for himself to "search" instead of having to deal with several Jonins. And finally the demon showed up and asked him what he needed to do.

Unlike the rest of Konoha he never let go of his hatred for the Kyuubi and its container. He always wanted revenge on that hellspawn for killing his older brother on that fateful night thirteen years ago. Unfortunately that demon managed to fool the Hokage with his trickery and so he was heavily guarded during his youth which meant downright attacking him wasn't an option. Even his second plan of gaining its trust and then sabotaging his exam failed when he pulled a fast one last year and did the exam earlier. By the time he noticed that he wasn't in class as he should be he already had his headband on and it was too late to do anything. He was almost ready to just let it go and focus on getting out of here but now he was given a second chance to get his revenge and by Kami he was going to take it!

Convincing Naruto to join him so they could search together was easy. As the sole Genin he wasn't supposed to go out by himself on these types of emergencies and generally Jonin didn't feel like babysitting a Genin during such a mission. Therefore as his old academy-instructor he had a valid excuse to team up with him. The others just assumed he was taking one for the team and were glad they weren't the one who had to drag a Genin around so nobody complained. Naruto realised he wasn't being taken seriously and that they just let him run alongside a Chunin for show but he knew better by now than to disobey an order from his superiors and so he grudgingly went along with it. If nothing else he could ask Mizuki about the exam and how good everyone did.

A few minutes later Naruto was scouting the area Mizuki assigned to him. He didn't really know who he was looking for, just that someone stole the forbidden scroll earlier that night. When he found out that such an important scroll was stolen that easily he had some serious doubts about the security systems they used. Even with his still limited knowledge of seals he could think of a few ways to protect such an important item way better. While he was pondering the different methods to secure items with seals he couldn't help but shake the feeling he was being watched.

'If only Hinata-chan was here. She could have found any spies immediately with her Byakugan.' he thought to himself. 'Perhaps I should learn some sort of sensoring-jutsu myself. It really shows that I don't have experience with that sort of thing if I always expect her to bail me out. I'll ask Gai about that next week.'

Just then his enhanced senses, another gift from his tenant, picked up a faint sound a few hundred meters further in the woods. He knew that was supposed to be Mizuki's part to investigate but thinking it might be the thief he sped up towards it anyway while taking care to remain hidden. He remembered Kakashi's words about striking from the shadows and didn't want to ruin his element of surprise.

Two minutes later he arrived at an open space in the forest. Taking care to remain hidden inside the foliage he stealthily looked down at the source of the sound. His eyes went wide open with surprise when he found the thief sitting on the ground with the hidden scroll next to him. It appeared as if he looked bored and was waiting for someone else to arrive. In his boredom he had started throwing twigs, rocks and pineapples at the trees around him thus creating the sound that lured him to this place.

'What the hell is going on here?' Naruto wondered while he kept looking at the man below him, 'that looks like the guy we saved from Orochimaru. But why would he steal the scroll and why does he look smaller than I remember him to be?'

Right then Naruto's train of thought was interrupted when he heard a familiar voice enter the clearing. "Ah Suigetsu, there you are." Mizuki said as he walked into the clearing.

'Suigetsu? But I thought...' the gears inside Naruto's mind were turning at a mile a minute while trying to make sense of what he saw.

"Ah Mizuki-sensei. I was waiting for you. As you can see I successfully got the scroll and none of the Chunin managed to see me. Is this good enough for graduating?" the genin-hopeful asked.

"Yes, yes you did a very good job indeed. Now hand over the scroll and I will give you what you deserve." Mizuki said with a smirk.

'Graduating? Test? Steal the scroll? Hand it over? Headband?' Naruto slowly put all the pieces of the puzzle together and realized Mizuki was playing everyone for a fool.

"No!" He shouted while jumping down. "Don't hand over that scroll! Mizuki has lied to you!"

Mizuki cursed at how close he was but decided that he might as well play his cards now anyway "Yes, you idiot!" Mizuki shouted, "There is no make-up exam. I fooled you into stealing that scroll for me and while everyone is looking for you I will make a clean getaway."

"Mizuki-sensei!" Naruto said scandalized, "Why are you doing this? Why are you betraying Konoha?"

"Why? For power and money of course. With this scroll as collateral I am guaranteed to get a hefty reward from Orochimaru. My days of scraping by on a teacher's salary are over! But enough talking Naruto, it's time to die!" As he spoke those last words he picked the two oversized shurikens from his back and threw them at Naruto and Suigetsu.

Naruto instinctively went for his combatgloves but he cursed when he realized he was still dressed in his formal clothes from earlier and wasn't wearing them tonight. He also wasn't wearing his usual mesh armour or even his pouch with kunai, shuriken and tags. Deciding to fall back on his ninjutsu he quickly formed the bird-seal "wind release: great breakthrough" he shouted as a heavy gust of wind blew the shuriken to the side so he was saved.

Meanwhile Suigetsu got hit by the shuriken and violently split in half but instead of blood it seemed that only water flew from the wounds. A few seconds later all the water gathered and reformed itself until he stood there unharmed with a smirk on his face. "You'll have to better than that to stop a Hozuki!" he shouted defiantly.

Deciding to use the distraction to his advantage Naruto once again used the bird sign and gathered his chakra for the Air Bullets-technique. Focussing on releasing his wind-elemental chakra, like he had been studying for this past year, instead of regular chakra he prepared a much more devastating variant of the normal move. "Wind style: Drilling Air Bullets!" he shouted as he launched several projectiles of highly compressed windblades at his opponent at high speeds. He watched in satisfaction as Mizuki couldn't dodge in time and the attack tore through his hastily put up defences tearing several nasty gashes all over his arms and torso.

Breathing heavily while he was losing blood from the attack Mizuki scowled at Naruto. "So you think you can stop me?" he shouted. "I am still a Chunin for a reason you know: 'Fire style: Fireball Barrage'!" he launched a multitude of fast moving fireballs at Naruto who was too close to dodge.

"Water style: Water Barrier!" a giant wall of water suddenly erupted from underground and blocked all the fireballs easily. "You didn't forget about little old me now did you?" Suigetsu said mockingly revealing that he was the one who made the water wall.

"You? But how did you stop that attack? You shouldn't be powerful enough to do that even if you have a water-nature!" Mizuki angrily shouted.

"I think it's time that we stop this charade now." Suigetsu said as he suddenly grow several inches in size and changed his appearance to what looked like an older version of himself wearing a dark-blue combat-uniform. The forbidden scroll meanwhile turned into a giant sword that he strapped on his back. The most noticeable change however was the Konoha-headband proudly displayed on his forehead.

"What? What's going on here? Who are you? And where did you get that headband?" Mizuki shouted in confusion.

Naruto meanwhile seemed to understand what was going on as he now recognized the man he rescued two weeks earlier. "Oh, so you were under a disguise were you?" he asked.

"Indeed, I used the water-transformation technique to hide my true appearance."

"But why?" Mizuki shouted. "What is your game? What are you up to Suigetsu?"

"I am afraid you are mistaken there as well. My name is Mangetsu Hozuki. The one you know as Suigetsu is an image of my younger brother I used as a disguise. And as for what is going on? Why don't I let the ANBU explain that?" Mangetsu said with a smile.

As he said those words several ANBU appeared in the clearing and surrounded Mizuki "Mizuki Touchi you are hereby charged with treason towards Konoha and attempted murder on fellow leaf-nin. Surrender now or we will be forced to use violence." said on of the ANBU in a rat-mask.

"fellow leaf-nin? But he failed the exam! He never passed it!" Mizuki shouted in his defence.

"Wrong again." Mangetsu corrected. "You see the Hokage himself had me undergo a test more than a week ago. After that I was officially a ninja of Konoha. The reason it wasn't announced was because I had to infiltrate your class as my first mission. I was an undercover agent the entire time. And as far as failing the exam went: once I realised you were sabotaging me I played along to see what would happen. The ANBU knew all along you were in contact with Orochimaru, I was merely the bait to lure you out since they knew you wouldn't be able to resist framing a former Kiri-ninja."

As the ANBU dragged Mizuki away Naruto and Mangetsu made their way back towards the village. "So what happens now that you are a ninja? Will you be placed on one the new teams tomorrow?"

"No, it would be weird to be placed on a team if I don't know anybody in the class. That can't be good for teamwork." Mangetsu explained, "I actually already requested a team. When I heard that you had saved another ninja from Kiri earlier I requested to be placed on Jugo's team. The Hokage agreed so starting tomorrow I am a member of the newly formed team Anko."

"A piece of advise:" Naruto said innocently, "If you go after your fist mission-request ask to catch Tora the cat. That one is always fun to do for beginning groups. Tell Iruka I sent you, I am sure he will give it to you without problems."

"Really? Thanks man, I am glad that you would do that for me. I was afraid my background would make it hard to fit in."

"Think nothing of it. Consider it my 'welcome to the village' – gift." Naruto said with an evil glint in his eyes that went unnoticed by the newest Genin of the Leaf.

* * *

A/N:

Ah, yes: nothing says "welcome top Konoha" than chasing Tora for a few hours. :D Sometimes Naruto is real evil. And tadaa! It wasn't Suigetsu after all but his older brother Mangetsu. Who saw that one coming? :p

I actually had it planned for a while and tried my hardest to never downright say a name while still not drawing attention to that. Now they never really specified his age so in this fic I made him two years older than Naruto which means he is fifteen now. If you think that him being a Genin isn't realistic since he should be a lot stronger then please remember that Genin is a rank, not a powerlevel. The Hokage isn't going to give an officer-position to a new recruit on day one.

Furthermore the idea of every team holding a mass anniversary just sort of came naturally once I planned to have one for team seven. I just figured that if you think about it a lot of teams should have one on the same day and it also explains why the search-team in the manga was seriously understaffed that day.

Anyway chapter 9 is coming up in a few weeks which will take place around the time of the Zabuza-arc and after that the Chunin exams will begin. This is also your last chance to PM me ideas for original Chunin-exam challenges.

please R&R


	9. The Land of Waves

Note: I do not own Naruto.

**09 – The land of waves**

"Tora! Tora! Tora!"

Naruto and the rest of team seven were currently busy doing one the favourite past-times of elite Genin such as themselves: watching the rookies chase Tora. Officially Tora was the cat of the daimyo's wife that escaped in the nearby woods and every new genin-team was tasked with catching her at least once sometime within the first few weeks of the team being formed.

"Oh, she almost got her!" Sasuke laughed as he saw Ino try and tackle the hell-cat only for it to change directions at the last moment causing Ino to fall flat on her face.

However after a team is promoted to the rank of 'Elite Genin', an unofficial title to differentiate between rookies and experienced Genins, they learn the truth: Tora is a nin-cat that works for the village of Konoha. When a Genin-team thinks it is ready to tackle a C-rank they give them this mission as a test. The trick is that Tora is too fast for any Genin and thus cannot be caught unless a team cooperates as a single unit and traps her. If a team succeeds they are deemed ready and are given a C-rank mission, if they fail they get sent back to another few weeks of D-ranks to help promote teamwork. The Tora-mission has proven to be a very effective qualifier of spotting teams that aren't ready yet and ever since the mission was first assigned the number of Genins who die on their first mission has dropped by 90%. The fact it was also an endless source of entertainment for the older ninja to watch their comrades struggle like team 10 was doing right now had nothing to do with keeping the Tora-mission as a tradition.

Team seven saw how Shikamaru tried to grab Tora with his shadow only for Choji to run in his path and be caught instead. Because of his sudden standstill it was too late for Ino, who was running right behind him, to dodge him and she ran straight into her teammate causing both of them to fall on the ground while Tora ran away into the woods again. Their sensei Asuma was standing a little on the side and looked disappointed at the spectacle his team was causing.

"Looks like team 10 won't be going on any C-ranks soon." Naruto said as he got up.

"It's only been six weeks." Hinata said, "They weren't really supposed to have perfected teamwork that fast."

"Team 11 did though." Sasuke shot in, "They caught Tora on the very first day. They even said you told them to take that mission."

"They cheated!" Naruto said indignantly. "You aren't supposed to just walk up to Tora and gently pick her up! That just goes against all the rules!"

They all remembered the incident six weeks ago when the new team 11, consisting of Jugo and Mangetsu with Anko Mitarashi as their sensei, tried their hands on the Tora-mission on their very first day as a team, causing a lot of laughter from the Chunin that handed out the missions that day.

However rather than the usual entertaining show team 11 passed this mission in record-time. Jugo simple walked towards an unsuspecting Tora and picked her up in less than 5 minutes. When they questioned the cat afterwards Tora admitted she never sensed him coming until he was already behind her. Apparently Jugo, now that he has some control over his bloodline, is so in tune with nature that he blends in perfectly eluding even Tora's senses. Needles to say it caused quite a shock to see them walk back into the mission office less than 10 minutes later with Tora securely nested in the giant's arms. After that team 11 was unofficially cleared for C-rank missions and already did two of them.

"Anyway," Sasuke said, "We better get going. Gai is expecting us and Kakashi said he would train me in using my Sharingan today."

"I still can't believe you unlocked it just like that."

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean! We all imagined it would be some big event! Like a life-or-death situation on a high-rank mission! You find yourself outmatched and losing badly and in the nick of time you unlock the Sharingan and turn the match around! Instead your eyes just sort of changed while we were training. That sure as hell was anti-climatic"

"Oh come on! That is so cliché. That is the stuff you read in mangas and adventure-books. You can't believe that every single Uchiha has been in a life-or-death situation as a kid in order to unlock our bloodline do you? The Sharingan develops naturally over time. There is no need to almost die in order to unlock it! True, there have been cases were a sudden shock sped up the process but those were the exceptions instead of the rule."

"I know that! I just always assumed it would be a bigger deal than just a normal training exercise."

"To be fair: Gai-sensei's training exercises can't really be called normal." Hinata jumped in.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto said with a played shock of betrayal, "How could you have forsaken me? I trusted you!"

"Ouch, you're such a drama-queen!" Sasuke sighed as the trio reached their training ground where their eccentric sensei was currently doing one-handed handstand push-ups while challenging Kakashi to break his record.

Kakashi was relieved to see them and be freed from Gai's shenanigans and quickly shunshinned Sasuke away for their private training.

* * *

Three hours later:

"Eight Trigrams: 64 palms!" Hinata shouted as she quickly went trough all 64 strikes of the technique on a training post.

"12 seconds." Naruto read from his stopwatch as soon as his teammate landed the 64th and final strike on the log. "That's your best time yet."

"It's not good enough." Hinata answered disappointed, "Neji can do it in 7.5 seconds. I need to at least try and get it under 10 if I don't want to fall too far behind. I still keep losing to him in our family spars."

"You aren't falling behind." Gai reassured his female student, "If anything it is Neji who is too single-minded. In your family spars you are limited to the Gentle Fist, but in a real battle you would have more options than him. Your use of water-techniques or medical jutsus would tip the scales in your favour. Remember that behind all that strength in taijutsu he hides some glaring weaknesses in ninjutsu. His sensei keeps complaining that he refuses to work on anything else. That arrogance isn't strength! It is foolishness that will be his downfall one day."

"Thank you Gai-sensei" Hinata said with a smile.

"Team seven?" a voice suddenly interrupted their training.

They looked up and saw an ANBU with a Scorpion-mask at the edge of their field, "The Hokage has summoned you to his office. I already contacted Kakashi and Sasuke. You are to report immediately."

"Sure thing. We'll be right there Kazaki-san." replied Naruto.

"Dammit Naruto. We have these masks for a reason you know! You can't just use my real name outside the barracks!" the ANBU replied.

"Sorry, sorry." Naruto apologized, "It's just weird to pretend I don't know who you guys are. Those masks aren't exactly hiding a lot, you know?"

"Of course you would say that. But normal people don't live with us, you know? Besides: what if someone I put away overheard my real name and decides to hunt down my little sister to get back at me?"

"You don't have a sister! You're an only child." Naruto replied back casually.

"That's not the point! Anyway, just go meet the Hokage, it looked urgent."

"All right team!" Gai shouted in his always overenthusiastic voice, "we cannot let the Hokage wait for us! We shall reach the tower in less than five minutes or do two hundred push-ups!" before running away towards the centre of Konoha with Naruto and Hinata quickly following behind.

* * *

Hokage's office:

"I'll get right to the point" the Hokage said to the gathered team seven. "One week ago I sent team eleven on an escort-mission to the Land of Waves. It was supposed to be a simple C-rank: escort the client, fend off some bandits... nothing special."

"I take it something went wrong?" Gai asked in his serious voice.

The Hokage nodded. "yesterday we received an emergency message by their courier-hawk. It turns out that some local crime-lord has hired missing-nin to do his dirty work. This one apparently has enough coin to spare since he contracted no one less than Zabuza Momochi, the demon of the hidden mist."

Everyone had shock written all over their face at that declaration.

"Luckily they managed to fend him off and escaped with everyone alive. But Anko got badly hurt and they have reasons to believe that Zabuza is still alive. They need immediate reinforcements. You are to go the Land of Waves at once and support them. Anko will tell you more once you are there."

"Understood, Lord Hokage. We shall depart at once." Gai said while the rest of the team saluted and left the office.

* * *

The Land of Waves: two days later.

"... And that's when I realized that The hunter-nin was Zabuza's comrade and that he is still out there." Anko finished her explanation to Gai from the couch were she was currently recovering in.

She knew that Tazuna was lying about the difficulty when they ran into those two so-called "demon brothers" earlier but she never expected to run into the Demon of the Mist himself. For once in her life she was glad the council didn't give her the title of Jonin she deserved. As she was only classified as a Tokubetsu Jonin Zabuza hadn't taken her seriously and she had managed to surprise him and get in an early hit with one of her poisonous snakes. After that Zabuza got serious and tossed her and her team around like rag-dolls. In her opinion it was clear his supposed A-rank was an understatement as well: that guy was a lot stronger than your average Jonin and easily qualified as S-rank. But eventually the poison caught up with him and he started slowing down and losing some of his monstrous strength.

When she started getting the upper hand Zabuza suddenly collapsed with several senbon-needles in his neck and a masked ninja, no older than 15, showed himself and claimed to be a hunter-nin. It was only after she cleared her head and thought it over that she realised her mistake as a real hunter-nin would have destroyed the body on the spot rather than carefully taking it away. Thus she decided to send for back-up and used one of the emergency courier-hawks Konoha used for such situations.

Gai was in deep thought as he went over everything he just heard. He hated liars as lying was very unyouthful in his opinion, but after walking through the impoverished and downtrodden town he realised that Tazuna didn't really have a choice. He needed protection if he hoped to finish the bridge and hiring a Jonin-squad for weeks on end was impossible unless you were as rich as a Daimyo. So they had put together all of the funds he could spare and had hoped that a squad of Chunin would be enough for the bandits that Gato would throw at him. Unfortunately for him though he had downplayed the danger a bit too much and the Hokage had deemed the mission safe enough for a Genin-squad. In the end though Gai could sympathize with the man's fighting spirit and refusal to give in to impossible odds.

"All right then. Even though your earlier lies were most unyouthful I can see that you had no choice in the matter. We shall protect you from the evil Zabuza that wants to destroy the peace in this land!" Gai declared with his fiery passion.

"Zabuza isn't evil."

"..."

Everyone looked at the otherwise confident and bold Mangetsu who was currently looking down and had spoken for the first time since team seven arrived.

"What do you mean, waterface?" Anko asked to her subordinate.

"waterface?" Hinata silently asked Jugo.

"Anko-sensei likes to give people nicknames. She finds it endearing." Jugo explained.

"Well? I am waiting." Anko repeated.

"He is not evil." Mangetsu repeated, "Zabuza is one of the most honourable men I ever met! He would never do this if he had a choice! He is just desperate and in need for funds"

"You know him personally?" Gai asked surprised.

Mangetsu nodded "Five year ago, back in Kiri I was a member of the seven swordsmen just like him. I was part of his group that tried to stop the terror of the fourth Mizukage. As you know it didn't work so when things went bad and we had to run for it Zabuza stayed behind to cover our escape. He could have sacrificed us and gotten away easily but he took the risk of getting killed so his fellow men could get away safely. Zabuza is a hero! I don't know why he is working for Gato now but to me all it shows is that he is desperate and must have ran out of options. Being on the run for all these years, being hunted like an animal. It must have affected him harder than he is willing to admit since the Zabuza I know would have never worked for scum like Gato."

"The way I see it killing him wouldn't matter anyway." Naruto said.

"What do you mean?"

"Zabuza is just a hired force. He doesn't have any personal issue against this country but is merely working for Gato. Thus as long as Gato stays alive the real problem doesn't go away. Even if we manage to kill Zabuza and complete the bridge Gato will simply hire someone else and blow it up again. As long as Gato is free to do what he wants everything else is pointless."

"So we kill Gato then?"

"It's a start. But if this country wants real peace it needs a more permanent source of protection other wise Gato will simply be replaced by some other mob boss."

"That is a most splendid observation Naruto!" Gai praised his student. "I will leave Gato to you guys while I shall take over Anko's protection duty for as long as she is still recovering. I would say that Zabuza needs two more days to recover based on Anko's description. That means that you have until Thursday to take Gato down. In the event that you can't finish your objective in time you have to come back immediately to help us in the fight against Zabuza and his assistant."

"Understood sensei." the three members of team seven said and left.

"As for you two," Gai said to Jugo and Mangetsu, "It is better if we are prepared for the worst case. I shall personally oversee your training these next two days to make you as ready as can be. Let's start with a small warm-up..."

Mangetsu and Jugo smiled at the prospect of getting training from a full Jonin.

"... by running 25 kilometres. Afterwards we can begin with the real work-out. You will also need to start wearing weights, how about 10 pounds on each arm and leg? We can increase it later."

And they immediately hoped Anko would recover soon and save them from Konoha's most eccentric teacher.

* * *

Meanwhile team seven went over their plan:

"So taking down Gato... Easier said than done. We don't even know where that man is hiding. And I doubt he will have an office for his illegal deals with missing-nin." Naruto began.

"We're not even sure he is actually here. He could be in the Gato headquarters back in the Water Capitol for all we know." Hinata answered.

"I doubt it. Guys like him won't trust such a critical mission to an underling. If he hired Zabuza then he is close by to keep an eye on things. He is in the Land of Waves all right."

"You know, there is something that keeps bothering me about this." Sasuke said suddenly.

"What?"

"This whole operation seems pretty expensive. Buying out all the shipping companies, keeping the Daimyo in his pocket and finally hiring Zabuza for a simple assassination on a civilian. That must have cost him millions. And for what?"

"To take over this country of course."

"First of all: that's ridiculous. You can't just 'take over a country' and expect to get away with it. The other Daimyos aren't going to accept that. If Tazuna hadn't shown up when he did we would have no doubt received several assassination missions with Gato's name on it. And a business man like him knows that. And secondly: why would anyone want this country even if they could get away with it?"

"Why wouldn't you want your own country?"

"No offence but this island is a mess. There are no natural resources, it isn't strategically placed and the economy is as broken as can be. Gato doesn't care about this place: he doesn't try and set taxes on import or mine minerals or really do anything that justifies spending millions in this dump. So what is he really after? What makes this place worth the risk and the money? If we know that then we know where Gato is hanging out while he is here."

"According to Tazuna he is expecting another shipment tonight. Since this place doesn't have any economy to speak of he is constantly bringing in his own supplies to keep his men happy. The funny thing is that once a month after stopping at the harbour like usual the supply ship doesn't return home immediately but instead sets of again following one of the rivers towards the centre of the island. Nobody knows where it's going or what its delivering on these trips, but I bet it's related to the real reason he is here."

"So far it's our only lead. Let's go take a closer look at that ship."

* * *

later that night: the harbour:

Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke had once again put on their completely black outfits. While they didn't like wearing them, unlike Lee who had started wearing it all the time since they infiltrated Orochimaru's base, they understood that for stealth-missions they were better than their usual, rather colourful clothes.

Being fully disguised and covered in a cloacking-Genjutsu thanks to Sasuke they climbed on board the ship while Gato's men were busy emptying it of all the booze and food it carried 'to keep up morale'. They silently made their way to the captain's cabin and to their surprise found it completely abandoned. Thanking their luck that the captain became lax in his security they started looking for any clues to Gato's whereabouts. Eventually it was Hinata that discovered the ship's logs and found that today was one of the times it would make a second trip land inwards. Unfortunately it didn't specify where exactly it would go besides the vague 'site of operations'. After a small debate they decided that they should take their chances and stay on board the ship to get a direct lift towards their destination. They used one of the small messenger-turtles Gai had summoned for them to use and gave it a scroll with a mission-update. That way their teacher would be kept up-to-date on their progress. With that out of the way they searched a quiet corner and waited for the crew to be done unloading their cargo and continue their journey.

* * *

Five hours later: location unknown

After waiting a while the ship had set sail again towards its destination. Team seven was hidden on board behind a strong Genjutsu that completely masked their presence. Eventually the ship arrived at its destination deep inside the island's waters. Unlike the small port that was located in the town itself this place was quite big in comparison and there were hundreds of people running around all wearing the uniform of Gato Corp. They were very surprised to see such an operation inside what was supposed to be abandoned land. But at least now they could figure out what Gato had been up to all this time.

Using some spare uniforms they found on the ship they blended in with the workers, many of which were no older than them, and started unloading the ship. They noticed that besides food and other basic needs the ship also carried several high-power industrial tools like drills, digging machines and even cranes. After the job was done they were forced to follow the masses back towards one of the main buildings, possibly a barrack by the looks of it, but they managed to jump inside a small alley without anyone noticing.

Still under the cover of darkness they made their way towards what they assumed to be the local headquarters based on the number of guards. They climbed the walls using the tree-climbing technique and entered the building from a window on the fourth floor; the guards never noticed a thing.

Once inside they quickly found the main office, thanks to Hinata's Byakugan, where they assumed Gato spent most of his time if he came to oversee the operation he was working on. Naruto expertly picked the lock and they went inside to see what they would find.

They found that Gato was surprisingly well organised for being the head of a multinational. From what they remembered the Hokage's office was always one big mess with "urgent messages" piling up for days before the old man finally got around to looking at them. They knew Kakashi's office was even worse from the few times they were allowed inside. Given the urgency of his job he handled the day-to-day messages well, especially urgent ones, but everything else was a disaster. His archive of mission reports, if you can call it that, was basically one big pile of scrolls that didn't show any sort of structure or consistency and the floor looked like it wasn't properly cleaned in years. So they were quite surprised to find an office that was spotless with all the files and transactions neatly organised in several binders according to chronology and theme. It also made their job of finding out what he was up to quite easy.

Naruto opened a binder labelled 'business transactions' and started reading everything Gato had done the last five years. He quickly confirmed that officially speaking Gato Corp. was losing big time with everything they spent in Wave: between buying out sixteen shipping companies, five trade agencies, the rights to both ports and a monopoly on twelve pre-existing trade-routes he lost 345 million ryu in five years. He also spent an additional 50 million in hiring all kinds of missing-nin to do his dirty business. Zabuza alone had cost him 20 million for the assassination. Furthermore he had relocated hundreds of employees from all branches of his corporation to work full-time on this site causing him to lose two big contracts in Water country because he was short of staff. All in all he had lost half a billion ryu in all the time he spent here. His profits on the other hand were a joke: without any meaningful form of trade he could tax and with no natural resources or other goods to export he had nothing. Even his illegal transactions like trafficking slaves, selling drugs and organising prostitution barely made a hundred million in five years. In short: either he was the worst business-man in the world or they were still missing something important.

"This confirms my suspicion." Naruto said to his teammates, "Gato isn't interested in milking this country dry. He is losing too much money here for that to make any sense. If it wasn't for his other contracts he would have been bankrupt ages ago. He doesn't want to take over Wave, he wants it isolated and quarantined so he can complete this project away from prying eyes."

"Do we have any idea what they are doing here yet?" Hinata asked looking through a binder labelled 'trade agreements'.

"I think I found it!" Sasuke said looking through a binder labelled 'project Uzu'. "Kami, I don't believe this!"

"What? What did you find?" Naruto asked.

"According to this we are at the site of the ruins of Uzushio, the old Hidden Whirlpool Village. He is digging it open and looting it of every artefact he can find." Sasuke said before looking intently at Naruto.

"U..Uzu?" He asked incredulous, "My mother's village. We are at my mother's village..."

Suddenly realization dawned on him. "My mother's village!? That scumbag is looting my mother's village!" he yelled in frustration and anger.

"Naruto-kun calm down." Hinata said to her distressed teammate.

"Calm down? Calm down! My mother's village is being desecrated and you want me to calm down?" Naruto barked at her with his eyes taking on a red colour and showing a distinct slit like a fox.

Realizing he was losing his control to the Kyuubi Hinata did the only thing she could think of.

SLAP.

"..."

Naruto rubbed his cheek were Hinata had slapped him... hard.

"Are you calm now?"

"Yes, yes I am." he said after regaining his composure and looking at her with his normal blue eyes. "But I am still going to kill that son of a bitch and burn this whole place down!"

"But how did he find the ruins in the first place? Didn't Kakashi say that after the war the village was completely destroyed?" Hinata asked Sasuke.

"According to this the village wasn't destroyed but merely buried underground as a last defence-mechanism. Combined with countless seals to hide its presence Konoha's rescue party assumed it was gone. However five years ago Gato sent an expedition here to scout for potential natural resources and with more dumb luck than anything they discovered this place. By then the seals that had hidden its presence were out of chakra and the village was once again visible. Ever since then he is literally digging it up. Since the land is the property of the Wave Daimyo and any discovery was rightfully his property he decided to take over the country to avoid having everything confiscated."

Sasuke kept reading the files going through the inventory of discovered goods, "So far he sold quite a lot of artefacts to collectors around the world. Even otherwise worthless stuff like rusted kunais and vases become quite valuable since they have an authentic Uzumaki-symbol on it. He is selling this stuff for ten to twenty times its normal value. This explains how this operation manages to stay profitable despite all its official losses."

Naruto led out a small growl at hearing someone was getting rich from graverobbing his ancestors but otherwise managed to stay calm.

"Hold on a minute," Sasuke suddenly said, "according to this he only sold the petty stuff so far. He is also holding on to several unique and valuable items for a big black-market auction later. Holy Kami!"

"What?"

"The expected profits from all the items he found so far is worth billions! Apart from novelties like the Kage-hat or ceremonial robes and the like he also found some really dangerous stuff. Just look at this list: high quality weapons, unique jutsu scrolls, blueprints for advanced fuinjutsu... The list goes on. There is even a summoning contract belonging to the last Uzukage! This stuff is amazing."

"Does it say where he is keeping all that stuff?" Naruto asked.

"There is a large warehouse for the regular items that he ships out once per month. But the real expensive stuff is stored in a vault on his private yacht."

"He has a yacht?" Hinata asked.

"Gato doesn't actually live in this country and since he only personally shows up now and then he didn't found it worth it to invest in a mansion for himself and he also refuses to share a living space with his hired thugs. So instead he spends the time he is here on board his private yacht which he uses every time he comes over."

"There was a giant yacht in the harbour. I didn't pay much attention to it then, but you think that's where he is now?"

"It should be. I doubt any of his men could afford such an expensive ship and he never leaves it unattended. If its anchored here then that's where he will be staying tonight."

"Then it's time we pay him a visit." Naruto said, "This bastard has terrorised this country long enough. Tonight he dies."

"Naruto! Don't let your emotions cloud your judgement! We can't just kill him and walk away. What about his companies, his trade-routes, his men, this base... ? If Gato falls away without any proper chain of command in place this will degenerate into a warzone were his lieutenants will fight for control."

"Then what are we supposed to do! Walk away and let my family's legacy fall in the wrong hands?"

"Hinata didn't say that." Sasuke jumped in, "She merely pointed out that we need to plan this carefully and not just jump in and kill him. Politics don't work as easy as that. We don't want to kill Gato just for someone else to take over. We need to shut this whole thing down by its roots. Remember what Kakashi taught us? We have to think things over logically and come up with a plan of action."

Naruto calmed down and together the three of them thought it over for a few minutes before coming up with a plan.

"Now remember Naruto, we need him alive if we want to pull this off."

"Fine." Naruto grumbled, "I won't kill him... But I can at least break his nose right?"

Sasuke sighed but choose not to comment on his teammates remark.

"He will pay for his crimes but unless you want to throw this country into chaos and gang-wars we need to make sure that all of his operations, both legal and illegal, are taken over by the proper authorities and for that he needs to be kept alive and properly tried in court. Simply killing him won't solve anything."

"Fine, fine. Now let's go already."

And with that team seven made haste towards the only luxurious yacht in the harbour hoping to put an end to Gato's crimes once and for all.

* * *

**A/n:**

Wew, it is finally done. These last few weeks were extremely busy for me and it took me forever to find free time to write. But from now on I am finally back in college so I can start popping out chapters at my usual speed of once every two weeks.

Anyway yeah, the land of waves... again. I know this arc has appeared a million times already but it is necessary for my bigger plot that certain things happen and I like to think I gave it an interesting enough spin to keep it fresh.

anyway please read and review.


	10. The legacy of the Uzumaki

******note: I do not own Naruto.  
**

**10 – The legacy of the Uzumaki**

"I'm telling you: he's not here." Hinata once again confirmed after scanning the entire harbour with her Byakugan.

After team seven discovered that Gato's actions in Wave were only a distraction for his real plans on digging up and looting the hidden Whirlpool village they decided to put a stop to it and wanted to confront the corrupt businessman in his private yacht. The only problem was that he wasn't in his yacht when they entered it. After knocking out the guards he left behind they searched every deck for a sign of life but they soon discovered that Gato wasn't on board. When even Hinata's Byakugan couldn't find him anywhere in the entire artificial harbour they had to rethink their strategy.

"Look, he has to be around here. His yacht is still here and he hasn't taken anything with him that indicates he is going away for an extended period of time. So obviously he plans on returning. Maybe he just went to inspect something in the barracks?" Sasuke tried to come up with an explanation for Gato's absence.

"I already checked the entire harbour" Hinata said, "he simply isn't here."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I am sure!" Hinata responded agitated, "I checked every house in this place, there is nobody there anywhere and I..." she suddenly stopped mid-sentence and activated her bloodline again to look around her.

"Do you see anything?" Naruto asked her.

"No." Hinata answered with a troubled look on her face, "I don't. In fact that's the problem..."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't see anybody. Apart from a few guards here and there this place is almost deserted."

"Deserted? But what about all those people we saw emptying the boat earlier?"

"That's my point They aren't here any more. And neither are the smaller ships we saw earlier as well. I'm guessing Gato took his forces and moved them all out of here while we were going through his documents."

"But why? And where did he go with that small army of his?"

"I don't know, but I guess we have to find that out and fast. Because it can't be good!"

Team seven decided that a direct approach was the way to go and cornered one of the few guards that were left behind. After Naruto used his chains to tie him up Sasuke used a small Genjutsu on him to make him reveal his secrets. To their horror they learned that Zabuza recovered faster than Gai had anticipated and he and his assistant were currently in combat with team 11 and Gai at the bridge. Meanwhile Gato had decided to cut back on some costs and he had taken his men to ambush the survivors when they were weakened and out of chakra after the battle.

"Shit shit shit! Zabuza is fighting Gai-sensei right now and we are stuck here." Naruto panicked.

"Naruto calm down. Gai-sensei is more than capable to defend himself, even against someone like Zabuza. And remember that he can always open the inner gates as a last resort." Hinata tried to reassure him.

"Still, we better get their as soon as possible. I don't want to just stay here when the rest of our team is fighting for their lives." Sasuke said.

"And how are we supposed to get there on time? We hardly know were we are!"

"Simple," he said, "we go the same way Gato went. By sea."

"We are going to water-walk all the way around the island? That's even more crazy!"

"Who said anything about walking?" Sasuke smirked while looking behind him.

The rest of team seven followed his gaze and smiled when they realized what he was aiming at.

'Oh yeah, I can't wait to see Gai's face when we dock in that thing!' Naruto smiled while looking at Gato's luxurious yacht just inviting them to use it.

* * *

Meanwhile at the bridge:

"So, Konoha sent reinforcements huh?" Zabuza's gruff voice seemed to appear from within the thick and unnatural mist that clouded the bridge from view. "Unfortunately for you it looks like you are going to die here today."

Although Gai never showed any outside signs of stress he was starting to panic inside. 'Shit, he is early! I wasn't prepared to face him so soon. Without Hinata's Byakugan to spot him this fight will be a whole lot harder. I guess I became a little too spoiled by her eyes and I forgot what it's like to fight blind'.

Discarding his anxiousness he went into his pouch and pulled out his trusty nunchucks. While they didn't look as impressive as his opponents giant cleaver they actually had a core of chakra-conducting metal which he used to pump them full of earth-chakra making them nigh indestructible yet still lightweight enough for his speed-based taijutsu. His sharpened battle-instincts where the only warning he got to roll to the left and dodge one of Zabuza's swordstrikes, he quickly retaliated by kicking at Zabuza's legs and trying to sweep them from under him but the missing-nin jumped over his attack and tried to counter. Gai saw the attack and silently opened the first gate for a quick speedboost and got out of the way before closing it again. Throughout his extreme training regime he had conditioned his body in such a way that opening and closing the first three gates for short bursts could be done with relative ease and without the permanent damage you normally risked as long as he allowed enough time to recover in between each opening.

He took a quick glance behind him and saw Jugo and Mangetsu take on the false hunter-nin that was now confirmed as Zabuza's apprentice. The battle seemed to be going quite evenly for now so he focused back at his own opponent who had once again disappeared into the thick mist.

* * *

After having subdued and captured all the guards left behind team seven used Gato's yacht to start their trip back towards the bridge, hoping to arrive there in time to help in the fight against Zabuza. Sasuke took the wheel and the ship started sailing along the river towards the sea.

Meanwhile Hinata and Naruto went tot the upper deck towards Gato's private chambers where they had discovered his famous vault in their earlier search.

"Think you can open it?" Naruto asked.

"This won't be a problem." Hinata said while silently activating her Byakugan. She stepped towards the first of four dials and slowly started turning it around. By focussing her sight to the inside of the vault's mechanism she carefully turned all four dials until the inner mechanism was aligned and the heavy door opened without trouble. "Tadaa, one vault opened without a problem.".

As they both walked inside the large room their mouths fell open in shock at all the riches and treasures they saw. It appears that Gato had accumulated a lot more wealth than they originally thought. The entire back of the vault was filled to the brim with gold, gems, jewellery and other valuable goods, all neatly catalogued and organised like the files in his office were. But their eyes quickly fell on the newest addition of the vault: stuck in a corner were the relics from Uzu, easily recognizable by the spiral-symbol that decorated most items.

Naruto carefully approached the pile and let his hand glide over the items. 'So these are the relics of Uzu. I won't let Gato have them. They belong to my family!'

Meanwhile Hinata was looking through the rest of the vault. She picked up a beautifully decorated necklace which she couldn't resist trying on and showing off much to Naruto's amusement at his teammates girly behaviour.

Looking back at the pile in front of him that was dug up from the ruins of Uzu he found a small wooden chest, no bigger than a small backpack with a note attached. He looked at the note and saw a short message in Gato's handwriting that read "chest locked with something called 'bloodseals', impossible to open even with force. The crest and the location where we found it indicate this belonged to the Uzukage himself. Maybe valuable to collectors?"

"Jackpot!" Hinata's voice came from behind him as she held back a large binder filed with documents. "These are all of the ownership documents to Gato's businesses. With this document we can return the rights to every company he took over back to the people."

"That's great!" He said before looking back at the wooden chest in front of him. He noticed the Uzumaki-spiral prominently displayed above the opening. Taking a closer look he saw that the crest itself was actually a very detailed seal shaped in the form of the spiral that prevented anyone from opening or breaking the chest and accessing its contents. 'A bloodseal huh? I wonder if...' Naruto focused on his combatgloves and they withdrew on his right thumb leaving it bare, he made a small incision in his thumb and smeared some of his blood on the seal and to his satisfaction the chest opened with a soft click that drew Hinata's attention. He then focused on his gloves again and less than a second later his thumb was once again covered with the metal. 'I love that I can change its shape so easily, it would be a bitch to remove them every time I needed to.'

"Did you find anything?" she asked while putting the document she was inspecting back in the binder and sealing it away.

"I managed to open a sealed chest. Let's take a look at what's inside." Naruto answered as he opened the chest. Inside they saw all kinds of scrolls which were further sealed with the same bloodseal as the chest itself. A quick glance revealed several jutsu-scrolls, some for specific elements and others more general, several books on fuinjutsu that were a lot more advanced than anything Kakashi ever showed him and at the bottom he found another scroll that he recognized as a summoning contract like the one Gai once showed them.

"A summoning contract?" Hinata gasped in surprise. "That is a very valuable find. Does it say which animal it belongs to?"

"It doesn't." Naruto cursed, "see? The part that mentioned the name is unreadable now."

"Well it was buried and unused for decades, so I guess some damage is to be expected." Hinata reasoned. "Are you going to sign it?"

Naruto remained silent as he watched the summoning contract intently. 'Am I going to sign it?' he wondered. He knew that Jiraiya promised to let him sign the toad-contract and Gai offered all of his students the chance to sign the turtle contract as well. Until now he hardly thought about it: he would have simply gone with the toads since that is the one his father had used and that was the only reason he needed. But this contract was similar. True, his mother was too young to have actually signed it herself before Uzu fell but it was still a contract that belonged to his mother's clan and that meant that for the first time the toads didn't automatically win this one just because his father signed it. He needed to really think it over this time.

"I'm not sure." he finally answered, "I don't even know what animal it summons, it might be something stupid. At least with the toads I am sure what I'm getting."

"Why don't you see who the previous owners were? If one of them is famous we can look up what animal he summoned." Hinata offered.

"Hey, that's not a bad idea." Naruto beamed at finding a loophole in knowing the unknown animal. "Let's see here.". He opened the scroll and looked at the previous entries. He noticed five names, four of them being Uzumakis, including Uzumaki Arashi who was the founder of Uzu and the first Uzukage. But eventually his eyes fell on the only non-Uzumaki on the list: Senju Tobirama. They both gasped at reading the name of the second Hokage.

"This contract was signed by the second Hokage?" Hinata said in disbelief, "but how did that happen? I thought it belonged exclusively to the Uzumaki-clan?"

"The Senju and the Uzumaki often intermarried," Naruto explained his family-history which he had studied intensively ever since he found out who his parents were. "It's a little known fact but Tobirama and Hashirama weren't full brothers but half-brothers. After his first wife died their father remarried to an Uzumaki, who then became Tobirama's mother. As such Tobirama is actually half-Uzumaki. I guess that was enough to let him sign the contract. I'm actually relieved to see his name there." Naruto admitted.

"Why is that?" Hinata asked curiously.

"Well, I was secretly afraid that since I'm not a full-blood Uzumaki and I don't belong to Uzu they might reject me. But if they accepted Tobirama then obviously neither of those are absolute rules and I might have a chance."

"Anyway, do you happen to know what contract the second Hokage had? Then we can finally find out which animal it summons."

Naruto thought back to their history-class and tried to remember anything he could about the second Hokage, unfortunately he couldn't remember anything about a summon contract "I don't know." he finally admitted, "I didn't even know he had one till now."

"Well there goes that idea." Hinata said disappointed, "I really thought we were close to finding out."

"Then again, if both the first Uzukage and the second Hokage used this contract then it must be quite strong right?"

"I suppose so. But enough about that contract. What else is in there?" Hinata asked curiously.

"Several training scrolls with various techniques, several designs for seals and one weird scroll I can't make heads or tails of." Naruto answered.

"The Uzukage's personal library of techniques?" Hinata whistled through her teeth. "Gato had no idea on what kind of treasure he was sitting."

"I second that." Naruto said while putting the chest away again to study later. "Besides that there also these weapons he found." he pointed at the rest of the pile that included all kinds of weapons in surprisingly pristine shape.

"Did he really dig those up? Some of those look like they just came from the store. Not found buried in rubble for three decades"

"I already checked some of them. They have self-repair seals on them." Naruto explained, "Even with a limited amount of chakra stored inside they can maintain their optimal state for years on end. It's not that hard."

"Oh." Hinata said, surprised at the versatility of seals. She looked through some of the weapons until her eyes fell on a weird looking black bow that looked a lot more damaged than the other weapons. She casually picked it up to take a better look at it and was surprised when it suddenly started glowing. She felt some of her chakra being drained into the weapon as if it was being loaded. Then as sudden as it started the feeling stopped and the bow now had a bright white colour and looked and felt brand new.

"What did you do?" Naruto asked after seeing the weapon change shape and colour.

"I don't know." Hinata admitted, "I just picked it up and next thing I know it drained my chakra and changed its shape and colour."

"It appears the weapon adapted to you." Naruto said.

"Adapted?" Hinata asked. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It's similar to my combatgloves." Naruto explained while showing the gloves he now wore almost all the time. "The weapon has bounded to your chakra and has changed his appearance and colour to suit your style. I guess it must have been empty for all these years and you were the first one to touch it."

"Me? But what about Gato then? Surely he must have had his hands on it if it ended up on his boat?"

"The first one with enough chakra to trigger the transformation." Naruto elaborated, "Gato is still a civilian. Him touching a chakra-based weapon wouldn't do anything."

Suddenly the room started shaking and they heard Sasuke's voice coming from below the deck "You better come over here! We are nearing the open sea. We will arrive at the bridge soon."

Naruto quickly opened a storage scroll he was carrying and put all the relics from Uzu in it before hurrying to the bridge. Hinata followed him, the white bow equipped on her back.

* * *

Meanwhile at the bridge:

"Ice style: demonic ice mirrors!" the now unmasked Haku shouted while a dome of mirrors appeared around Jugo and Mangetsu. He then stepped into one of the mirrors and his image appeared in every one. "This is my greatest technique, you will not survive this attack." he announced in a sad voice.

Jugo was breathing hard and looked quite worn down. Both of his arms no longer looked anything human and appeared overly large and brown. He had several needles all over his body but he bit through the pain and managed to keep moving.

Next to him stood Mangetsu who was hacking at the ice that had formed around his feet. 'Just my luck!' he thought 'Turning into water makes me almost impossible to hit no matter what attack I face and I end up fighting the one guy in the whole world that can turn me into ice! Just great!' He grabbed his sword in a tighter grip and prepared for another wave of senbon-needles and ice shards. They didn't hurt that much individually but there were just so many of them! He knew they were slowly being pushed back and he frantically looked for another way to fight his opponent.

He tried throwing several explosive tags at the mirrors. He was still surprised at just how powerful these tags were that they sold in the "Dragon's Fang". They far outclassed any of the other tags he ever used in his career. He smiled when the explosions managed to put large spiderweb-cracks in the mirrors. However his face quickly fell when the damage healed before his eyes and the mirrors looked as good as new.

He prepared for another attack and inwardly cursed at team seven's absence 'Where the hell is Naruto when you need him! If I didn't know any better I swear those guys were cruising around on a yacht or something!'

* * *

Sasuke was still behind the wheel when his teammates came back down from the vault. "Found anything good?" he asked.

"Oh yeah," Naruto confirmed while holding a storage scroll. "Gato dug up a fortune in weapons and techniques. We even found a summoning contract belonging to the second Hokage."

"Sweet. Anything else?"

"The rest of the vault is filled with gold, jewellery and the property rights to all of his businesses."

"I also found this bow." Hinata said while pointing at the weapon on her back, "it's a special weapon that works on the user's chakra." she explained.

"chakra-based weapons?" Sasuke said impressed, "I'd like one of those as well."

"You can take your pick later." Naruto said, "it looks like we reached the sea."

The yacht had indeed finally reached the sea after having followed the river they came from. Looking at the compass next to the wheel Sasuke saw they were about 10 kilometres East of the bridge. He turned the wheel and set course for their destination. "At our current speed we'll be there in ten minutes!" he said.

Meanwhile Naruto had unpacked the summoning contract again and looked at it in deep concentration. 'What should I do?' he wondered.

* * *

Tazuna's house:

"Thank you for saving our lives" Tsunami said in tears to Anko who had just saved them from two of Gato's men that tried to kidnap her and her son to use them as hostages. Luckily for them Anko was still in their house resting from her wounded shoulder. When she had heard the commotion she quickly got up and summoned several snakes to constrict and subdue the two thugs. Though she wasn't completely recovered she was still capable of handling some lowlife thugs without straining her injury.

After reassuring her clients Anko headed for the bridge to help out her team 'Dammit guys, you better be safe!' she thought while hurrying. Though she would never admit it she had gotten quite attached to her little team and couldn't stand the thought of them dying while she wasn't even there. "Just hold on! I'll be right there!" she shouted while running at the site of the battle, the pain in her shoulder all but forgotten.

* * *

"See anything yet?" Sasuke asked to Hinata who had her Byakugan activated and was looking through the thick mist to navigate them towards their goal.

"Nothing so far." She answered while focussing back on her self-appointed job.

Meanwhile Naruto had come to a decision regarding the summoning contract. "I'll sign it." he announced.

"Are you sure about that?" Sasuke asked, "Once you sign it you can no longer get the toad-contract as well. Didn't you always want that one?"

"Yes, but that was before I knew the Uzumakis had a contract as well. Now that I know it exists not signing it seems like betraying my family."

"The toad-contract belonged to your father as well." Sasuke pointed out.

"Yeah but the Namikazes aren't a clan. My dad just signed it because Jiraiya did. There is no real history attached to it."

"But you don't even know which animal it summons? What if it's something really lame?"

"It belonged to both Arashi Uzumaki and Tobirama Senju." Naruto said, "if it's good enough for two Kages then I doubt it'll be bad."

"Fair enough." Sasuke said getting curious himself, "you know the drill?"

"Gai-sensei explained it, so It'll be fine" Naruto answered before pulling out the summoning contract and writing his name in blood next to the entry for 'Akira Uzumaki', the last one to have signed it. He took a deep breath and did the handsigns for the summoning justu before slamming his right hand down with as much chakra as he could gather "Summoning Jutsu!"

From his hand the seals that indicated the jutsu worked appeared in a spiralling pattern and a large column of smoke clouded the arrival of the summoning animal.

"**What the... Who summoned me?" **the mighty voice belonging to the summoned creature demanded while looking at the three members of team seven.

"Is that?..." Hinata asked.

"No way!" Sasuke said in disbelief.

"Oh yeah!" Naruto exclaimed, "I knew this contract would be awesome!"

* * *

Meanwhile at the bridge:

"Mangetsu!" Jugo shouted as he helplessly watched his friend collapse to the ground with several places of his body frozen solid.

"Ju... Jugo, I'm sorry I couldn't help you after all. Take care my friend." He said before his eyes closed and he fell into darkness.

Haku watched the scene without any emotion on his face, though inwardly he was in deep turmoil 'Why? Why do I have to fight them? They are just like me!' but he soon reverted back to his personal mantra 'No, if master Zabuza says it needed to be done, then so be it. I must close my heart and be the tool master Zabuza needs.'

"It's time to finish this." he whispered to the still shell shocked Jugo.

Just as he was about to launch a senbon-needle at his heart he heard his target scream an inhuman wail at the skies and watched in horror as black plague-like spots sprouted forth from everywhere on his body until he was completely covered in a suit of living armour. The last thing he saw was his eyes becoming completely yellow before his opponent unleashed a massive torrent of chakra. He reflexively shielded his eyes from the onslaught and missed the massive punch that broke through his mirror like a sledgehammer. He flew several metres back and lost his control over the Demonic Ice Mirrors. As his dome collapsed he just barely saw Jugo propel himself towards him with jet-like protrusions on his back. His gentle and calm eyes now showed signs of pure insanity as he received a second hit in his stomach that launched him against one of the pillars of the bridge. He felt some of his ribs break from the hit and lost consciousness from the pain.

Jugo prepared to jump after the downed ninja to finish the fight when he suddenly found himself constricted by several large snakes that stopped him from moving. He looked behind him and saw his sensei Anko kneeling next to Mangetsu's body carefully using a healing jutsu on him. "Anko-sensei?" Jugo asked, "why did you stop me? He killed Mangetsu, let me avenge him!" he tried to wrestle free from the snakes but they only bound him harder instead to stop him from struggling.

"Calm down Jugo!" Anko scolded him, "your opponent is already down. There is no need to keep fighting.

"But he killed Mangetsu! I can't let him live." Jugo cried in tears though he had stopped struggling against the snakes.

"Mangetsu is still alive." Anko interrupted her student, "He took quite a beating but he will recover just fine." As if to prove her point Mangetsu started coming to his senses and let out a groan as his body was still in pain from the damage he took. Jugo's eyes were wide upon seeing his friend still alive and hurried over to his side. Meanwhile Anko went to the downed ice-user and used some ninja-wire to bound him. 'no need to take risks, the last thing we want is that he awakes as well and takes us by surprise.'

She then looked at the bridge itself and frowned when she still heard the typical sounds of combat. 'It looks like Gai is still busy.' she thought, 'Dammit! If only my shoulder was healed yet, I can't risk running into such a fight in my state. I'll only hinder Gai like that.'

* * *

Back with team seven Naruto was happily talking to his summoned animal. Gai had taught them that besides signing the contract you had to undergo some sort of test as well before you were allowed to be a summoner of a clan. However Naruto lucked out since the Alpha summon of the owls had decided that him being one of the last remaining Uzumaki and his intention to honour and revive the lost clan was enough for him to be allowed as a summoner. In essence he had been given the contract for free.

"Owls huh? I wonder how he feels about them. They're not exactly as strong as the toads." Sasuke asked Hinata as they both watched Naruto fly before the ship on an owl the size of a large horse.

"There's more than just strength. They aren't as big or as strong as say the toads. But they belong to his clan. That alone must mean more to him than raw power." Hinata answered with a giggle as she watched Naruto and the owl make pirouettes in the sky. "They also know how to fly and they don't look as gross as toads do. Owls are majestic creatures."

"The flying is cool, I'll give you that."

"Are you jealous?" Hinata asked with a smirk.

Sasuke ignored her teasing and instead changed the subject "We should be quite close now. Can you see Gato's ship yet?"

Hinata activated her bloodline and looked straight ahead "I can see the outlines of the bridge ahead of us, but my vision is being blocked. Probably the hidden mist jutsu."

"Dammit, that means Zabuza's already there. You really can't see through the mist? That's the first time you have problems seeing through a technique."

"It's not natural mist, it's laced with chakra. If we get closer I should be able to focus and see through it but at this distance I just see one big cloud of chakra that blocks everything in it."

"And Gato's boat? Is he there as well?"

Hinata focused her eyesight and scanned the area until she spotted the boat approaching the bridge on the far side. "I got him! He is aboard a ship 750 metres ahead of us. There are about 60 other men with him, all armed with various tools and crude weapons."

Sasuke nodded and steered the yacht to go right ahead towards the smaller boat. "We'll catch them soon. Inform Naruto. He can fly ahead and attack them from the sky."

Moments later Naruto was informed and he and his avian partner picked up speed and went towards their target for a surprise attack.

Hinata meanwhile had picked up her bow and tried to see if she could hit someone at this distance. She pulled back the string and felt her chakra being drained into the weapon. Using her Byakugan to zoom in on one man at the back of the ship she let go of the string and the bow fired several arrows made of her own chakra straight at Gato's men. She watched in surprise as not one but six men fell down simultaneously from her shot. 'What the hell?' she thought.

"Did you just fire ten arrows at once?" Sasuke asked in disbelief.

"I guess so... I only meant to fire one though. The other nine were a surprise."

"Chakra-weapons aren't like normal weapons after all. I guess you need to practice some more with that bow before you can safely use it. It wouldn't do if you can't control where all the arrows land now would it?"

"Why not? I killed six of them instead of one. So that's good isn't it?" She reasoned.

"In this fight it doesn't really matter I guess. But what if we were dealing with a hostage situation and you just killed five innocent men alongside the enemy? Killing people you didn't mean to is very dangerous in our line of work." Sasuke insisted firmly.

Hinata looked a bit shocked at hearing she could have just killed innocent men because of her lack of control and vowed to not use the weapon until she was able to safely pick of only the targets she wanted to hit. She tried again and this time she carefully focused on just one guard at the back. Three arrows flow from the bow and killed two men while a third one was only wounded and gave a loud cry of pain alerting everyone.

She watched how panic and chaos spread through the boat at watching someone fell down with a large wound in his knee but no sign at how it got there. The beautiful thing about the chakra arrows is that after they hit something they loose their cohesion and dissipated without a trace, the perfect murder weapon indeed.

Meanwhile Naruto and his owl-summon Minerva reached the boat and dove down from the sky. Using her large talons Minerva picked one of the men up and tore him in half before letting him drop dead in the ocean. On the second run Naruto used a wind-jutsu to hit three more men and blowing them overboard. In between each of his runs Hinata kept firing arrows at the group and their numbers quickly fell to the dual onslaught.

By the time the yacht caught up with the smaller ship only Gato himself and ten men were remaining. Sasuke was tired of not being part of the action and jumped on board the vessel where he quickly dispatched the remaining men until only Gato was left behind as a shivering mess begging for his life. Since they agreed to let him face proper justice Sasuke simply appeared behind him and used a quick chop at the base of his neck to make him lose consciousness. He then used ninja-wire to bound the small man and lifted him over his shoulders as he started walking towards the bridge.

* * *

Back on the bridge the battle between Gai and Zabuza was nearing its climax. Both fighters were tired and on their last breath. They each had enough energy for one last attack. 'Here goes nothing.' Gai thought as he prepared to open the sixth inner gate for his finisher move 'The Morning Peacock'. Meanwhile Zabuza gathered all his remaining chakra and quickly went through several handseals for his strongest water attack the 'Water Style: Dance of the Infinite Watersnakes'.

Just as both men were ready to end it a giant gust of wind hit the bridge and all the remaining mist was suddenly blown away at once. Looking at the end of the bridge they saw Sasuke and Hinata next to a bound an unconscious Gato while Naruto was hovering above them on a giant owl.

"Give it up Zabuza!" Sasuke said while holding a kunai next to Gato's throat. "With your employer gone you have no more reason to continue fighting us. However if you cooperate we will hand over the money you were promised by this guy here as a sign of goodwill."

Zabuza realised that the only way he could get his cash was to take their offer so he slowly lowered his hands and sheathed his sword again. "Very well. But you better not cheat me out of my cash, you hear."

Gai was glad his students had appeared and stopped the battle and even more proud that they had managed to capture Gato as well. So he gave them a thumbs up and loudly congratulated their youthful spirit "Well done guys! I am glad that the fires of youth burn brightly within you! As a reward I shall do my best to make the next training session extra hard so you can reap the best possible benefits for the future."

The three members of team seven let out a loud groan at the idea of even harder training sessions, 'as if his regular schedule wasn't already ridiculous by itself' they thought.

Meanwhile Minerva the owl-summon had landed on the bridge and turned to her summoner **"Since the battle is over I shall take my leave now. Till we meet again master Naruto." **and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Well now that it is all over let us go back to the town and rest." Anko proposed after she showed up and handed Haku over to Zabuza, "Don't worry, he's only a bit beat up but he'll be fine."

"Very well." Zabuza said, "but you better not forget our agreement. I expect to be paid."

* * *

Three hours later in Tazuna's house:

"... and then Minerva used a wind-technique to scatter the mist and well... you know the rest" Naruto finished telling everyone what they had done these last days. Gai and Anko were gaping with their mouths open and for once neither knew what to say at the unbelievable story.

Meanwhile Zabuza and Mangetsu were catching up after he finally recognised him as one of the junior swordsmen in training. Jugo and Haku also started talking after the former had apologised for almost killing the ice-wielder.

Gato was officially arrested by the people of Wave and kept locked up in a cage in the town-square until he could be given a trial. His fortune was divided in four parts: Zabuza got the twenty million ryu he was promised by Gato plus an additional 5 million to keep him cooperative, all the shipping companies and other business from Wave were returned to the people with their profits going to the public good, the items that were identified as property of the Uzumaki-clan went to Naruto since he was the only known heir and the other items in the vault that fit neither previous category were considered 'spoils of war' and went to Konoha with all teams involved getting an additional 10% finder's fee. With the bridge completed and with the shipping embargo lifted Wave started recovering fast as trade picked up again.

* * *

The following day the Konoha ninjas were about to depart went Zabuza and Haku suddenly appeared to stop them.

"Hold on. I've got some things to discuss with you guys before I go my way." Zabuza said to Gai.

"What do you want Zabuza-sama. Are you ready to accept my challenge of who can do the most push-ups?" Gai asked with eagerness in his voice.

"Maybe later." Zabuza said, "I came here to discuss some serious stuff."

Gai understood that Zabuza was serious and decided to listen to his request with a sudden professionalism he never showed before. "I am listening, Zabuza-san.". Everyone sweat dropped at the sudden change in attitude while team seven face palmed in embarrassment.

'Is this guy bipolar?' Zabuza thought before clearing his throat. "Anyway. The first thing I want to discuss is the release of two of my subordinates named Meizu and Gozu. I understand that Konoha has them in custody and I would like to see them released. I am willing to pay their bounty as collateral for your losses."

Gai and Anko looked a ta each other and nodded "That can be arranged. I'll talk to the Hokage when we get back."

"Thank you. The second thing I wanted to ask you is a personal favour for me. I want you to take care of Haku."

A loud "What?!" filled the area as every Konoha-nin fell backwards from hearing Zabuza's request. "What do yo mean 'take care of Haku'?" they asked.

"Three weeks ago, before I came here, I received a message from the land of Water." Zabuza explained, "There is another rebellion growing around a leader named Mei Terumi. They asked me to join their cause and attempt another strike at the Mizukage. This won't be just a skirmish but an all-out war and I don't believe Haku is ready for that. To make it worse since he is the wielder of a bloodline he will be targeted by Yagura's forces and as he is now he cannot defend himself under these conditions. We discussed this last night and I believe he will be safer with Konoha."

He then turned to Mangetsu specifically and said "you better take good care of him, you hear me? I only trust you with that task."

Mangetsu nodded and saluted Zabuza with a "Yes sir!".

Zabuza smiled with his eyes, something that vaguely reminded everyone of a certain Cyclopean ninja back home "Good. As a token of appreciation I have a gift for you." he said while throwing him a scroll. Everyone wondered what was in it while Haku gasped in recognition 'Zabuza-sama must really respect this boy if he is willing to part with THAT.'

Mangetsu unsealed the contents of the scroll and gasped at seeing two Chicken Sabers pop out. They looked to be ordinary weapons without any fancy design on them but he immediately recognized them for what they really are "Kiba: The Thunderswords." he whispered in disbelief.

Zabuza nodded "After Raiga died in the battle I took his weapons with me for safe-keeping. I believe you are worthy of wielding them. Congratulations Mangetsu, you are a true member of the seven swordsmen now. You better live up to the name though, you have quite a reputation to defend."

With that Zabuza said his goodbyes and soon the Konoha ninjas, including their newest member Haku went back to Konoha. They had quite the tale to tell.

* * *

omake:

Meanwhile back in Konoha Kakashi was holding a meeting with his lieutenants from ANBU.

"As you all know the Chunin exams are approaching soon and this year Konoha is chosen to be the host. So what tests shall we give the Genin that want to try out?"

"I was thinking of a standard 'ten questions' with a moral dilemma at the end." Ibiki answered.

"Again? You already did that twice." Kakashi said, "Try to think of something original will you. And the second test? Genma what do you have?"

The Jonin looked desperate as he tried to bluff his way out by spouting the first thing that came to his mind "Forest of Death? finding two scrolls?"

"Yeah no. Try again." Kakashi said with a deadpan voice. "Listen people, we need to make a good impression here. So I demand two original tests against next week!"

With that everyone left while Ibiki cursed at being ordered to make up a new test. 'And what's wrong with the standard 10 questions? It's not like any of them have ever seen it before?'

* * *

A/N:

And it's done! This has been the largest chapter to date and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Naruto has owl-summons now, Hinata has a new bow to train with, Mangetsu has the Thunderswords (calling them Kiba is just confusing) and Haku is the newest member of team 11.

So everyone is ready for some chunin exams I think? I wonder what sadistic test Ibiki will think of now that he can't take the lazy way out anymore.

See you next time!

please R&R


	11. preparing for the exam

******Note: I do not own Naruto  
**

**Chapter 11 - Preparing for the exam**

Hokage tower: two weeks before the Chunin exams:

The Hokage was looking at all of the Jonin that were currently teaching a Genin-team. He had gathered everyone in his office to officially inform them of the upcoming chunin exams. Of course everyone already knew that the exams were coming months ago, and all of them probably already knew whether they would enrol their students or not. But the last meeting to make it official was a tradition nonetheless and thus he began the speech he prepared earlier.

"As you all know the Chunin exams are coming up soon." he began, "and since they are being held in Konoha this year it is crucial that we put up a good show. Therefore I expect each and every team to take this seriously. The older Genins already filled in the paperwork themselves, but for the first-timers it is tradition that their Jonin-sensei decides if they are ready or not. So let us begin shall we?"

Hayate Gekko was the first one to step forward and bowed for the Hokage "I, Hayate Gekko, sensei of team nine hereby officially promote my team for a chance in the Chunin exams." Everyone politely applauded, though none were too surprised.

Next up was Maito Gai "I, Maito Gai, sensei of team seven hereby officially promote my team for the Chunin exams." Once again everyone applauded out of tradition.

There was some surprise though when Asuma Sarutobi stepped up next "I Asuma Sarutobi, sensei of team 10, hereby promote them for the exams." This time the room fell silent and everyone looked confused at each other. They hadn't expected one of the rookie teams to join in after all. Before they had a chance to react however Asuma was joined by Kurenai Yuuhi who also promoted team eight.

This time Gai felt like he had to speak up "Are you two sure about this? The Chunin exams aren't a joke you know. I felt it better to let my students wait a full year before I let them join the exams."

"Our students are the same age." Asuma simply shrugged. "Ever since team seven's early successes they have been extremely motivated to prove themselves. They are far better than most would expect of a rookie team."

Kurenai nodded and added her own opinion "It seems that after team seven graduated a year earlier the rest of their class decided that they didn't want to fall even further behind. They have upped their personal training when they were still in the academy. My team was already far above what you usually expect from fresh Genin by the time they graduated. I only needed to work on their teamwork since that was the only thing they were still lacking."

Iruka tried protesting but the Hokage cut him off "very well then. I accept your nominations and I look forward to see how they do in the exams."

With every team handled the Jonin were about to leave when the Hokage stopped them with another announcement. "We have one last nomination this year." he said to the gathered ninjas.

"Really?" Asked one Jonin, "But every team is already nominated is it not? Even the rookies have joined in."

"I also received a nomination from Anko Mitarashi for team eleven." The Hokage said.

A lot of the Jonin frowned at hearing from the infamous 'team eleven' as Anko called her two students "Excuse me Lord Hokage," the same Jonin said, "but I seemed to be under the impression that 'team eleven' isn't an official team? Besides they only have two members and the rules clearly state you need to enlist in a group of three."

"Normally you would be correct," The Hokage stated, "but recently a new bloodline-user has asked for amnesty in Konoha and Anko has been named as his teacher therefore she now has three pupils. Furthermore as of this morning I have officially promoted Anko to full Jonin and granted her and her students the status of full team. 'Team eleven' is hereby officially added to our roster and nominated for the Chunin exams."

This raised a lot of questions from everyone in the room. Well except for Gai as he already knew who this "new bloodline user" was.

After the Hokage had dismissed all the Jonin from his office he turned his attention towards Kakashi "And how is the exam itself going along?" he asked.

"Ibiki and Genma just finalised their tests sir. And I must say they really outdid themselves, these exams will be very memorable indeed."

The Hokage looked at the file his ANBU-commander handed him and raised his eyebrows in surprise. "They really had fun with this one, did they?" he said while smiling. "I'm very curious how the teams will handle these tests, they are quite original after all."

"It all depends on how good each team is prepared sir." Kakashi said before leaving to make some arrangements for the exam.

* * *

With team eight:

"Fang over fang!" Kiba yelled as he and Akamaru finished their combo and destroyed the wooden log they had been practising on.

"Good work Kiba, you too Akamaru." cheered Sakura, "we will show those other teams that team eight is just as good as any of them!"

"I do believe we are ready for these tests." said Shino, "Why? Because we have trained hard as a team and have grown a lot these last months."

"Very well said, Shino." Said Kurenai as she seemed to appear out of thin air, "you have all grown a lot. Especially you Sakura, you can be proud of the progress you made."

Sakura had indeed made some major improvements since her days at the academy. When she started she had some very bad traces of "fangirl-ism" on her but Kurenai very quickly showed er what a true Kunoichi is supposed to act and look like. Since she stopped dieting and actually worked out alongside her teammates she made some major physical improvements. Kurenai also sharpened her hidden talents for Genjutsu and she was now a serious Kunoichi and a force to be reckoned with.

Kiba, despite great scores in taijutsu, had graduated at the bottom of the class, though more because he goofed off than because of any real lack of talent. Nonetheless his mother Tsume had since then personally overseen extra training for her youngest son. As a result he and his partner Akamaru were in great shape and their combos were quickly becoming quite dangerous. His ninjutsu and genjutsu was still a soft spot though, but Kurenai at least managed to make him recognize and dispel easy ones so he could defend himself.

Shino was the strongest and most versatile member of the team. The Aburame's insect-techniques were the most well-balanced style out off all the clans in Konoha and he was extremely adept at them.

Together they became a well-oiled machine where each covered the other's weaknesses. And though they specialised in scouting they were equally capable of handling themselves in combat.

"Watch out world!" Kiba yelled with his fist in the air "Team eight is coming to the exams!"

* * *

Team nine:

Meanwhile the three members of team nine were holding their own final preparations for the exam. Neji was still trying to work on the Kaiten, a move he hoped he would be able to finish for the final. Meanwhile Tenten and Lee finalised one of the combos they created while working together.

Tenten's long distance weaponry and Lee's skill with a sword were a perfect match for each other and the two of them often fought alongside each other. Lee went in close and kept the enemy busy with his sword while Tenten used her own weapons to keep him covered and to guide the enemy into Lee's path of destruction.

Through their training they became quite close to one another and three weeks ago they had also started dating. Hayate thought they were a good match for each other and was reminded of the early days between him and Yugao. Neji on the other hand hadn't noticed it yet. In fact Neji barely talked to either member of his team if it wasn't for missions or training sessions and even then he preferred to do things alone rather than working together. The most insulting part was that it looked like he really didn't need any help as his mission records said he was still the best performing member of the team. Though he had recently started respecting their skills and no longer thought of his teammates as "useless dead weight" like he did in the beginning and sometimes even asked for help with certain training exercises, something that greatly surprised his teammates the first time he did it.

In the end though all three of them were very skilled ninjas and each of them was looking forward to testing their skills in the exam. Neji was hoping for a chance to fight his cousin Hinata in an all-out battle, while Lee and Tenten hoped to fight some of the other swordsmen that would be entering the exams.

* * *

Team ten:

The new generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho team was currently training their teamwork by going over one of the combo-attacks their fathers made famous years earlier. When they first got together they still had some problems to coordinate their attacks and more often than not they hit each other instead of the target. Incidents like Shikamaru's shadow-manipulation attack stopping Choji dead in his tracks or Ino's mind-control missing and hitting her teammates were common occurrences. Luckily once they managed to become accustomed to each other's fighting style their team took off like a rocket. One of the major advantages they had was that they had an entire library of moves already made before they even began their Genin test.

Most teams need several months before they can come up with some level of teamwork that actually takes advantage of three different fighting styles, but the Ino-Shika-Cho combination was already put to the test for several generations and as such they already knew exactly what worked and what didn't. It also helped that the three of them were childhood friends that trusted the other completely.

However the downside of this setup was that their individual skills weren't that good. Choji was the only one who was somewhat decently trained in one-on-one combat, Shikamaru's only chance was to hope he could outmanoeuvre an opponent using his tactical skills and Ino did not really have any offensive skills at all besides the basics. And even then she was still stuck in her fangirl-days from the academy. Without a strong example like Sakura had she was never motivated to take her training seriously; her teammates' lazy attitudes didn't help either. To be honest Asuma didn't really think they could pass, he only hoped seeing other teams at the exam would wake them up and make them realize they needed to train harder.

* * *

Team eleven:

"Congratulations guys!" Anko said to her newly formed team. "We are now an official team and we have been allowed into the Chunin exams."

Mangetsu, Jugo and Haku smiled at finally being given the chance they were fighting so long for. While it's true that 'not trying to kill them' made Konoha already the best village they had been in so far, they were still treated as outsiders by the general forces. Having Anko as their sensei didn't really help either, though they would refuse to trade her for anyone, and thus they became the butt of many crude jokes wherever they went. But now they had finally been granted the status of full team and been given a chance to represent their new village in the exams.

Though their individual skills were probably amongst the best of all the contestants, with them being three years older than the other rookies on average, they only worked as a team for a few weeks. As a result their teamwork was shady at best. The fact that they had tried and almost succeeded in killing each other not one month earlier didn't really help either.

Still in the end Anko had forced teamwork by focussing them on a common enemy: in this case a twenty foot tall poisonous snake that tried to kill them. After dodging the snake's fangs and trying to pierce it's impossibly thick scales they finally started working together out of necessity and managed to survive the training in one piece. They even managed to damage the snake some with a coordinated attack, at least enough to distract it and run away in hiding.

And thus the new team eleven became motivated by a shared goal to take these exams on, even if their teamwork wasn't optimal yet.

* * *

Meanwhile in Suna:

"Now remember the plan," The Kazekage said, "It is crucial that the three of you reach the final round. Do not disappoint me!"

"No father." Kankuro and Temari answered in unison while their youngest brother Gaara merely snorted. "Nobody will hurt me. I will validate my existence."

Temari and Kankuro looked at their little brother with a mixture of fear and compassion. When he was born Gaara had the one-tailed beast Shukaku of the Sand sealed inside him. Their father had hoped he would be able to control it and become a mighty weapon for the good of their village. Unfortunately the seal used for the procedure was too weak and the demon was able to influence their brother and turn him into a bloodthirsty maniac. The hateful glares of the villagers and the assassination attempts at his life didn't exactly help his mental development either.

After the meeting with their father the Fourth Kazekage both siblings went back to their room to prepare for their trip to Konoha. Temari was a wind-type and she favoured using a giant fan in combat. She has always been a bit of a tomboy and had taken her career as a Kunoichi seriously since the beginning. The one thing she hates most are little girls who disgrace the Kunoichi name by acting unprofessionally and being fangirls. She had mixed feelings about the mission she was assigned: she had a very developed sense of honour and betraying an ally was not something she looked forward to. But she understood why it needed to be done and would not hesitate when the signal came.

Kankuro meanwhile was checking his puppet one last time and restocked the supply of senbon-needles it could fire from his hidden compartments. Puppeteering was a rather obscure branch of Suna's battle forces and one he did not choose for himself. His father had decided that the puppeteer-corps needed a boost after Sasori's betrayal years earlier left the corps in a bad situation therefore he was "given the honour" to be trained as a puppeteer. Though he had to admit that he liked it a lot once he got more acquainted with the art. Normal ninja had limited potential they could hope for but skilled puppeteers were limited only be their imagination. And a true master could wield up to a hundred puppets at once. He often imagined himself as a general controlling an army of deadly puppets that rained destruction on his enemies while he himself stayed out of harm's way.

Gaara on the other hand had no such thoughts or ambitions. He was currently talking to "mother" and the only reason he even bothered to walk in line was the promise that he could kill as many people as he wanted when the invasion began. The promise of blood was also the only thing keeping the Ichibi calm for the moment.

* * *

Meanwhile in an undisclosed location:

Dosu looked at his two new teammates Zaku and Kin and judged them. Zaku had some sort of windtubes implanted in his arms turning him into a human cannon, something he could easily work with, while Kin was the most promising Kunoichi in Oto thanks to her skills in Genjutsu. His new team was assigned just yesterday and today was the first time he ever saw his teammates. He looked back at his life and thanked Kami for ever encountering Orochimaru. His early life wasn't great, the bandages on his face weren't for decoration after all but to hide his horribly disfigured face after barely surviving the fire that killed his entire family. Once he became an orphan overnight at the age of five he was thrown on the streets, his disfigurements were unnerving everyone he met and the town's orphanage said he would never get adopted with a face like that.

Living on the street drove him to desperation and he soon turned to crime to survive, one day he picked the pocket of a visitor in the town he was currently working in when he got caught. Rather than beating him like others did when they caught him this man started talking to him and asked questions about his past. He didn't know why he did it, probably because he was the first one who cared, but he told that man everything about his life. When he introduced himself as Orochimaru of the Sannin and asked him to join him he couldn't believe what happened but he hadn't hesitated and went along with him.

He never regretted the decision in his life: he used to be weak and disfigured, now he was powerful and the bandages made him look mysterious instead of crippled. He used to be alone and hungry, now he was part of an entire village and he got free housing and food. He used to just dwell around trying not to get killed, now he had a purpose in his life! Deep down he knew that Orochimaru only accepted him because he was useful and he had no doubt that he didn't truly care about him, but compared to his old life he was treated like a king and he would do everything to convince his master that he made the right choice by trusting him. He would fulfil his orders, no matter what he had to do. With his new teammates they would take the Chunin exam by storm and fulfil his master's wishes.

* * *

The village of Grass, Kusa:

A young redheaded girl with glasses was looking nervously at her two new teammates. Due to her training as a medic-nin she was selected as the third member for this year's Chunin-contestants. When their third teammate had received an injury and couldn't compete in the exam the village elders had asked, well more like ordered, her to take his place. Her two teammates were the sons of a rich merchant and a nobleman. And while their actual skills were mediocre at best they were nonetheless selected to represent Kusa in the exams. She was merely the third member on the team and it was made abundantly clear that she was not allowed to fail her two "noble teammates" or else she would no longer be welcome in the village.

Karing gulped and tried to force a smile as she and her new team were leaving towards Konoha. She hoped that everything would be going smoothly because neither of them were really all that good in combat. Not that her arrogant teammates would ever realise that, they actually believed all the praise they received was genuine instead of the village sucking up to their parents.

* * *

The village hidden in the Waterfall, Taki:

The village elders were looking at the three teams that would represent Taki in the upcoming Chunin exams. They did not have much hope in the first two teams, truth be told they were only accepted to ease their parents' complaints and they expected them to fail in the first test. Luckily Konoha had a habit of making the first test strictly non-lethal, which was the only reason they allowed those teams to try out. Maybe they would get a wake-up call and use the humiliation as a motivator to train harder.

Ignoring them the elders turned towards the third and most notorious team. Unlike the other two this team was specifically created for one reason only: to win the exams and make Taki look good, thus attracting more customers. Already this team was very controversial and they weren't sure if showing the dark side of the village to the rest of the alliance was worth the extra income their victory would surely bring. But those thoughts were quickly silenced since they realised their poor economy didn't leave them a choice.

When they announced the creation of this team there was a massive uproar in the entire village. The members weren't some of the most talked about Genin they had for a reason. First of was Heero Kuyi, nicknamed "pretty boy" by his teammates, Heero was a prodigy in the ninja-arts and a very talented Genin. Under regular circumstances a ninja like Heero would be considered the leader of his team and the one his teammates looked up to. In this team however he was chosen as the only one who could potentially not hold the other two back.

The second member was a green-haired girl with orange eyes. Her name was Fuu, nicknamed "Beetle-lady". Fuu was the jinchuriki of the seven-tailed Beetle and as such did not have a pleasant childhood. Though the villagers despised her and tried to make her life miserable the elders at least made sure she was kept safe and received proper training. They still remembered the last time a jinchuriki lost control fifteen years ago and ended up releasing the tailed beast, almost destroying Taki completely. While they still considered jinchurikis to be weapons for the good of the village they had at least understood that a jinchuriki should also actually be treated as if it was a dangerous and unstable weapon. This includes not attacking it or making it feel emotionally threatened. However in their eagerness to protect them from a demon they had created a monster.

This monster was the third member of the team: Krios, nicknamed "scarface". Krios was born just after Fuu was and when she was picked to be the next host of the seven-tailed beetle the elders decided to make a second weapon that day in the hope he could be able to handle Fuu should she ever lose control. As such the elders broke the worst village law there was and performed the Earth Grudge – ritual on Krios. The Earth Grudge was Taki's darkest secret and one of the most repulsive forbidden techniques in the Elemental Nations. Sixty years earlier the secret was outlawed and sealed away in the deepest darkest corner in all of Taki. Sixty years earlier Kakuzu, the strongest ninja that ever came from Taki, defected and in his escape gave the Earth Grudge his gruesome reputation. The elders should have listened to the warnings but the fear of the seven-tailed beetle overrode their judgement and that day they created the only person in the village more hated than Fuu.

The only plus side was that their bet paid of since Krios and Fuu became good friends with each other, well more like each was the only friend the other had and Krios was able to calm Fuu down and subdue the Beetle's chakra if she went too far in trying to access its power.

Now Fuu, Krios and their reluctant third teammate Heero were on their way to the exams with the single mission of making Taki look strong and powerful in front of the gathered lords and daimyos that visited these events to see which village would receive their money the next few months.

* * *

Team seven, Konoha:

These last weeks were a blur for the three members of team seven. Gai kept his promise of even harder training and thus the three of them hadn't had a moment of free time in between training, doing missions, training, eating, training, sleeping, training, resting from all the training they did and more training. But as a result their skills increased tremendously: Naruto finally managed to channel a basic wind-sword in his combatgloves and made some leeway in the more combat-oriented seals he found in the scrolls from Uzu. Hinata managed to control her bow and could now fire exactly as many arrows as she meant at the correct target. Sasuke was given his own pick at one of the chakra-weapons from Uzu and picked up a bo-staff that upon contact with his chakra became pitch-black. He had since took some basic lessons from a few ANBU that knew the weapon but he wasn't exactly an expert yet. In the end he kept favouring his fire and electric ninjutsus.

After another gruesome training session Gai had finally told them that he enlisted them to the Chunin exams. The three of them were determined that they would pass and become Chunin so they could finally get rid of D-rank missions and move on with their ninja-careers.

* * *

Two weeks later, day of the exam:

Team seven was on their way to the location of the first test that surprisingly enough took place in an abandoned warehouse 25 miles out of Konoha. Gai was surprised that the test took place outside the city walls since they usually just use the academy building for the first test. Seeing Kakashi looking quite pleased with himself and giggling every time he saw a Genin train for said exams didn't exact fill them with confidence either. They just knew that the first test would be all kinds of troublesome.

When they arrived at the warehouse and their identities were confirmed one last time they got inside and looked around. A lot of other teams were already there and none of them looked friendly at them. They were one of the youngest teams there after all: the average age of the participants was twenty years old, with some people as old as thirty-five. They also knew that anyone who wasn't Chunin yet at that age and hadn't received a field-promotion either would probably not be worth their time. Either you made it before you were sixteen or you would probably never make it at all.

Eventually they spotted their old classmates from teams eight and ten and decided to talk a bit to pass the time. Teams nine and eleven joined their groups later once they had entered as well.

When their conversations became a bit too loud they were approached by an older Genin named Kabuto Yakushi who reprimanded them and urged them to be more quiet in order not to draw attention to themselves. He then showed them a neat trick with information-cards, something Naruto knew required little skill in sealing and he could do it himself if he bothered, before he carelessly insulted a team from the new Sound-village Oto. Said team didn't like being insulted and one of its members tried punching Kabuto. Naruto noticed in surprise that while Kabuto managed to dodge the attack completely he still felt forward with blood coming from his ears. He stored that piece of information in the back of his mind and was about to strike back at the sound-team when a booming voice interrupted him and a large scarred man appeared in the front of the warehouse.

"Stop right now maggots!" Ibiki's booming voice echoed through the building, "there will be no fighting unless I allow it. Use of violence is forbidden in the first test and any caught fighting will be failed immediately. Now come here with your team so we can get started."

As every team came closer to the front of the room Ibiki smirked at seeing their faces 'oh yeah, this is going to be good. I wonder how many will pass this first test...'

"Now listen up and I will explain..."

* * *

A/N: Here's a little filler chapter while I keep planning the exam. Including some updates on the other teams that have been neglected till now.

R&R


	12. The first test

******Note: I do not own Naruto  
**

**Chapter 12 – The first test**

"Everyone be quiet!" Ibiki said, "I will now explain the first test. Pay attention because I will only explain it once."

He snapped his fingers and 20 Chunin appeared and started distributing bags to every team. "Inside these bag you will find custom made poker chips. Each team will receive 100.000 points worth of these chips. The object of this task is simple: You must play a series of gambling games against the other teams. You can only leave this room with a minimum of 300.000 points. Those who do not manage to collect the necessary points within two hours will fail this exam immediately. The persons who are caught cheating will have to pay up all their remaining chips to the person who accused them and their team will be thrown out. Falsely accuse a person and you will be the one that has to pay up. And finally a piece of friendly advise: though 300.000 points is enough to qualify for the second test there are bonuses for those who manage to get more. Any questions?"

Kiba raised his hand and asked what was on his mind "Hold on! How does gambling determine who is ready to be a Chunin? That's not ninja-work."

"As a Chunin you can be asked to infiltrate gangs of bandits. Many of these gangs are active in the underworld gambling scene as well. Knowing how to play these games can be an easy way into such a gang and might one day save your life. And to those who say it's not fair, well though luck! Life's not fair, get used to it! Any other questions?"

This time Shino raised his hand "Do we play this as a team or individually?"

"Good question." Ibiki said, "The answer is both: your points are counted as a team and the three of you need to collect the 300.000 points together, however the games are played individually. You must decide as a team how you best approach the situation. You can divide the chips and play individually or you can let one person sit this one out if you think that strategy is the best. There are no restrictions apart from the use of violence. Any other questions?"

The room stayed silent while each team huddled together while discussing the best strategy. Eventually all teams seemed to have worked out something and were ready to go.

"If all teams are ready then the first test has now officially started." With that the Chunin that distributed the chips earlier appeared again with dozens of casino-tables where people could go to gamble.

Naruto sat down at one of the tables for a game called 'poker' and looked around, there were eight other people playing the game alongside the dealer, but he didn't recognize anyone. He was given 30.000 of his teams points to spent and by the looks of it everyone had a similar amount, except for one player from Kusa that had all of his teams 100.000 points at once. After being explained the rules they started the game.

The games continued for 20 minutes without anything happening, no team had yet reached the necessary 300.000 points to pass and every time it looked like one came close they lost it just as fast. Most teams got stuck around their original starting point and people were getting desperate to make some headway before the time was up.

* * *

'This is impossible. There 's no way enough teams can win that much money in a fair game.' Hinata taught when she suddenly had a revelation 'Fair game! Of course! We aren't supposed to play it fair, we are supposed to cheat! We just aren't allowed to be caught doing it!'

With a new plan in mind she looked at the table again. She was playing a game of competitive blackjack against four other players. She silently activated her Byakugan for a second and looked at all the cards, 'two nineteens and two twenties.' She then looked at her own cards and counted eighteen. A peek at the deck revealed the top card to be a three and she smiled. She deactivated her bloodline so no one could see her cheating and called out "I call one card and raise the bet with 10.000 points!"

The other three people looked at their hand and three of them called her bet, only one of the players with a nineteen folded. The dealer gave her a card and revealed a three "twenty-one, the lady wins."

Hinata smiled and picked up her winnings. A few games like this and team seven would be victorious.

Across the rooms people started catching on to the hidden meaning behind the test and soon most people were using all tricks in their arsenal to cheat their way to victory.

Sakura was playing a game of Blackjack as well and revealed a 'three of hearts' and a 'two of diamonds'. "Blackjack I win." She called out while hoping the genjutsu she placed over her cards went unnoticed and luckily the six other players on her table cursed and threw down their cards while she collected the 40.000 points in the pot. "Better luck next time!"

Shikamaru and Choji were playing poker on the same table. Currently Choji was raising the pot constantly and drawing attention to himself while in actuality it was Shikamaru who had the best hand. This was another trick their fathers explained to them one time when they had won big at the local poker tournament the clan heads held once a month. The greatest part of this strategy is that even if someone caught on they couldn't do anything since technically it wasn't cheating. However this time their little scheme had run into some problems: after raising three times in a row one opponent was still in the game and by the confident smile on his face it looked like he had some really good cards. They had already spent 70.000 points on this hand and couldn't afford to lose, so they started 'plan B'. Shikamaru manipulated his shadow and stretched it out, which was the signal for their last teammate Ino to step in. Sitting across the room she silently prepared her jutsu and fired the "Yamanaka Special: Mind Body Switch technique at the last player". Since the target was sitting down and wasn't paying attention to the rest of the room she could hit him easily and took over his body. She looked at her cards and saw he had a 'four of a kind'. She waved his hand through his hair, a code they used to indicate a successful take-over, and Choji raised one more time. This time she folded the cards in the other player's name and then dropped out. The ninja came by looking confused and lost it when the dealer awarded all the chips to Choji, he accused both of them of cheating but the Chunin in play told him that neither of them did anything illegal and as a punishment he lost the remaining chips as well. Team nine counted their winnings and came to a neat 213.000 chips. They moved to the next table to play their little trick again. At this rate they would make 300.000 for sure.

Meanwhile Sasuke was sitting on the same poker-table as Neji and he had a hard time winning. Neji used the same trick Hinata did and strategically used his Byakugan to peek at the cards. He folded every time someone had a decent hand and called the bluff of all those who didn't. His aggressive playstyle and talks about fate unnerved many players and he soon started winning big time. Sasuke managed to hold his own and took advantage of the other players making mistakes every time Neji folded early. He managed to make a small 25.000 points profit taking him to a total of 55.000 points but he realised that he needed to cheat if he wanted to reach his goal. Unfortunately cheating was also next to impossible with an all-seeing Byakugan user at the table as Neji had already caught two players with cards in their sleeves and one who tried a genjutsu on her cards. He hated that his Sharingan was next to useless here: he could use it and not get caught but having a Sharingan didn't give him any advantage here. He smiled when Neji folded and reasoned his full house was the highest combination left. He raised the stakes considerably and could barely suppress a smirk when he won another 20.000 points 'perhaps this won't be so bad if I just play it cool and don't make mistakes.'

Gaara was looking at the table where his sister played. When it became clear that his powers were useless in this game he opted to sit at the side and wait this one out. He stared straight and unblinking in the eyes of Temari's opponent and watched in satisfaction how the man freaked out and dropped his cards, thus giving up and letting Temari take all his remaining chips. He smiled inwardly at seeing he was able to help his siblings after all. Meanwhile Kankuro was playing a game of craps. He used a near invisible chakra-string to connect the dice to his fingers and manipulated their result. "Seven! The gentleman with the make-up wins!" the dealer said much to his frustration as he collected his winnings and prepared to roll again.

Shino stared intently at the cards in his hands and the five cards on the field. He was playing Texas Hold'em and tried to contact his hive. Several games ago he started spraying pheromones on every card he held in his hand and gave them an invisible mark. At first it went slow but eventually his insects had marked enough cards to make informed decisions. He knew that the fifth card facedown was another ace and the third and fourth one a six. With the ace and six in his hand he would end up with a full house. He also knew that the other six and at least one ace was still in the deck. Convinced no one had a better hand than him he placed 10.000 chips in the pot and watched as everyone followed suit. He let out a smile beneath his collar when the dealer revealed the first three cards and the six showed up as expected.

On a different table Krios and Fu were playing a game of Blackjack against two teams from Suna that were obviously cooperating. Krios was using the threads from his earth Grudge to silently pocket several cards under the table. By keeping his hands still and in everyone's sight he appeared to be playing fair while secretly he looked for the cards he and Fu needed. Since his opponents were outnumbering them three to one they had a system were only the person with the highest score went ahead against them. At first they were losing a lot, safe for a few lucky shots that they couldn't match, but now they slowly started turning the tables. After having selected the cards that he and Fu each needed to form a twenty-one he let one of his threads brush against Fu's leg and she coughed loudly as a distraction. In a matter of milliseconds all four of their facedown cards were switched with new ones while he put the old ones inside the threads of his body for later use. He then raised the stakes with 30.000 points while Fu did the same. Their opponents conversed a while, which technically wasn't cheating as long as they didn't switch cards, before two of them followed with 30.000 each as well. When it was time for the showdown all four of them had a twenty-one but Fu and Krios had five cards each while the others only had three, thus they won by having more cards as the tie-breaker. The remaining cards were gathered in the deck again but not before Krios managed to sneak another Ace in between his threads, he now had a collection of ten cards to freely switch around.

* * *

1 hour into the game:

At the one-hour mark team ten had gathered 300.000 points and rather than taking further risks, which Shikamaru called "troublesome", they opted to leave and walked out through the doors reserved for those who passed. This seemed to raise several alarms with people that weren't doing so well that they needed to hurry up and be more aggressive in their betting and cheating.

Kiba finally had a lucky break when he spotted a Kunoichi from Ame putting a card in her sleeve, well technically Akamaru had spotted it but nobody needed to know that. He called her out and when the Chunin examined her sleeve and found the card he was awarded her pot of 15.000 points while she left the table giving him a glare. He looked at his own staple of a measly 25.000 points, ten thousand less than he started with and rather than take further risks and losing it against people who cheated a lot better than he could. He went to find his teammates and spotted Shino with a large pile of chips at one of the tables. Seeing that he didn't need help he looked for Sakura instead and found her hanging around with her pile that barely matched his own. A silent conversation learned that she made some profit using genjutsu to cheat but then nearly lost it when she accidentally was about to reveal a card that was already in play. Luckily she caught it on the last moment and could avoid being called out on cheating. However as a result she was forced to fold her hand when she had just placed a big bet in the pot resulting in her losing almost all her winning up to that point. They quickly made up a new strategy and decided to work together for the next game. The plan was that Sakura would use a genjutsu to disguise Kiba's cards rather than her own. That way when people caught on and called Kiba out he was safe since he never cheated and since her cards weren't tampered with nobody would think of calling her out.

* * *

1 hour and thirty minutes into the game:

Fifteen teams already cleared the mark for 300.000 points and had left the building. These included team nine, team Suna and team Taki. The remaining teams were getting really desperate since there were only thirty minutes left and since some teams took more than 300.000 with them there were barely enough points for 17 more teams out of the 55 teams remaining that hadn't been disqualified yet.

One of these teams was team eleven that currently held 267.000 points and was trying to make the last 33.000 in one final game. They were sitting all three on a poker table against a team from Suna. They had raised the bet just high enough that if any of them won they would have an even 33.000 points and were currently working a strategy to guarantee their victory. One of the advantages of having Anko as their sensei was that they had an intimate knowledge of all kinds of gambling games and how to spot people cheating at them. Being conditioned to pick up on Anko's subtle ways of cheating lest they lose all their money they had no problem discovering several of the more straightforward attempts that other people had tried that day. Their strategy didn't really involve cheating themselves but raising the pressure until someone else snapped and broke the rules, then they came in and capitalized on that. Now was another time they were close to succeeding: the cards in the middle were all pretty worthless with almost no room for straights or flushes, that meant that one of them was going to try something soon to go for a good hand combination. The trick was to pay close attention and call the right person out at the right time.

"The last card is a Three of Spades." The dealer said while revealing the fifth card in the middle. Everyone looked at his hand and most people inwardly cursed at the poor combination they had. Unbeknownst to anyone the Kunoichi from the Suna team currently had the highest hand with two pairs: a pair of sevens and a pair of kings. Had they just went with it and played it fair they would have won, however unfortunately for them one of the males in their group was getting desperate since he had nothing besides a "King High" that was in the middle. Not knowing that his teammate was going to win and with the pressure of the nearing deadline he decided to cheat.

Jugo who was currently using his bloodline limit to try and sense the aura of people immediately noticed the change in the Genin's mood from anxious to desperate and paid close attention to him. He nudged Suigetsu towards the person most likely to cheat and the swordsman who was trained to fight and see movements in thick mist focused in on the sweating male. Since he anticipated the distraction he didn't look away when the other male from Suna "accidentally" knocked over his chips and apologized while putting them back. In the split-second that he would have otherwise missed he saw how he replaced the two cards in his hand with two new one he drew from his sleeve. He had to admire the speed but especially the boldness in which the other person acted, had it not been for Jugo's advanced warning he was sure he would have missed the switch. Especially since his method was so crude that it didn't require any jutsu or bloodline. In a way it was ironic since if he had used a jutsu then Haku, who was a sensor, would have noticed the technique a mile away but simply switching the cards went undetected by his otherwise perceptive teammate. Still, he wasn't here to admire other people but to pass this exam so he pointed at the cheating ninja and declared that he had cards hidden in his jacket. Immediately after his accusation two Chunin jumped in and held the accused person still while a third went through his pockets and found five hidden cards that were stashed there. As per the rules of the game he and his team were disqualified and their points went to team eleven who now had 424.000 points. Deciding that they had no need to play on they went to the Jonin at the exit and paid their points to walk out towards the next test.

* * *

1 hour and 55 minutes into the game:

26 teams already passed and 70 teams were thrown out for cheating. The remaining 29 teams were now reaching the height of their desperation and all of them went for broke.

Hinata had just won her last game with another strategic cheat and went to look for her two teammates to see how many points they had. She spotted Sasuke and went towards him.

"Hey Sasuke, how much points do you have?" She asked

"I managed to get 85.000 points by myself. And you?"

"125.000," she responded, "so now it's all up to Naruto. If he managed to make at least 90.000 points we are safe. Do you know where he is."

Sasuke nodded and pointed towards a large table with at least 16 players, "he went and joined that table. A bunch of people went all out at the same time and they put two tables together to play one last massive game."

Hinata looked at the massive table and saw her blond teammate playing a game of Poker. The pot in the middle was the highest one she had ever seen that day and was easily 700.000 point by itself. If Naruto won this one they would pass on to the next test. She held her breath and followed the game.

Naruto looked at his cards and went all-in, thereby raising the stakes with 165.000 points, which was so high that no one had a choice but to go all-in themselves. "Last round!" the dealer announced, "Anyone wants to swap cards?"

Nobody did until Naruto threw his entire hand down "five new cards please." he said with a smile.

"Five cards!" Hinata almost shrieked, "He went all-in with more than 150.000 points and now he asks for five new cards? I swear to Kami if he screws this up I'll kill him!"

Everyone at the table was laughing at Naruto when he received five new cards. With so many eyes watching it was impossible for anyone to cheat in any way lest they be caught immediately and it indeed looked like he received five random cards and wasn't able to manipulate his hand in any way.

"The last round is done, show your cards now." the dealer announced.

All around the table the players revealed their hand one by one and it looked like some of them had managed to sneak in some cheats anyway. There were five 'Full houses', three 'Flushes', four 'Four of a Kinds' and two straight Flushes. Eventually the player next to Naruto revealed his hand with a smile '5 Aces' he said while showing his hand.

"Five aces? How can there be five Aces?" Hinata asked.

"With this many players they are playing with 2 decks mixed together, otherwise there wouldn't be enough cards." Sasuke explained, "In that case there is a new combination called 'a poker' which is basically 'Five of a Kind' and is the second highest combination of all. Five aces is one of the best possible hands in all of Poker."

"There's no way he got such a hand legitimately, he must have cheated." Hinata exclaimed.

"Maybe, but we didn't catch him and unless we can prove how he did it we can't do anything. Simply having a good hand isn't enough proof by itself after all."

"So it's over then?" she hung her head in defeat and almost cried, "We didn't even make it to the second test."

"Not so fast." Sasuke tried to comfort her, "Naruto still hasn't revealed his hand yet."

Meanwhile at the pokergame Naruto looked at the 5 Aces in amazement. "5 Aces, huh? What are the odds of that?"

"Last player reveal your hand." The dealer said.

"Oh right." Naruto said while putting his cards on the table one by one. First was a Ten of Hearts, followed by a Jack of Hearts, then a Queen, then a King and finally the Ace of Hearts. "Not bad huh?"

Everyone looked at the cards with shocked eyes until after about one minute the dealer came to his wits and coughed to break the silence.

"Royal Flush! Mr Uzumaki wins."

Naruto took all the chips in the pot, which were easily more than one million, and calmly proceeded towards his teammates while the rest of the room was still in shock. "So you guys coming? We only have one minute left after all."

They numbly nodded and followed him in a daze while he walked through the doors and slammed them shut behind them. At that moment the rest of the remaining Genin seemed to wake up and the room erupted in all kinds of cries of outrage and disbelief at what they just witnessed.

"Silence!" Ibiki's voice roared. "It has now been two hours. All those who did not manage to get the necessary 300.000 points are hereby disqualified. Better luck next time."

* * *

Meanwhile with team 7:

Genma greeted them with his ever loyal senbon in his mouth "So I guess you must be the last team to pass huh? That makes 27 teams total. Not bad for a first test. Anyway welcome to the second test!"

"Great, so when does it start? Where do we need to be? What must we do?" Naruto asked all at once.

Genma let out a devious smile between his teeth, which somehow didn't make his Senbon drop at all.

"Easy, easy. I will explain everything. Where is quite simple: the test starts right here. And when is simple as well: it already started one hour ago."

"WHAT!" They all three yelled.

"The second test started as soon as the first team passed the first one, since you are the last team to finish you guys are already behind a full hour."

"What? That's not fair at all!" Naruto said indignantly.

"It's realistic kid." Genma said without sympathy, "The real world doesn't wait for you to be done playing games! If you waste too much time on one part of an assignment you risk missing out on the other half. Had you left the casino as soon as you made the minimum instead of goofing around you would have had more time now."

Sasuke and Hinata gave Naruto a nasty glare that promised him pain if they would end up losing because of him while the latter looked nervous and hoped it wouldn't come to that.

"But there is of course a bright side to your strategy as well." Genma continued, "Ibiki did say that having more points than the minimum will result in receiving a bonus. And since you guys managed to collect over a million points you are entitled to the biggest bonus we have foreseen. Who knows? You might end up making up your lost time after all."

Naruto was relieved to hear he didn't screw up after all "So what's the bonus then?"

"Perhaps I shall first explain the purpose of this test. Here's what the second test is all about:..."

* * *

Meanwhile in the other room:

"So do we have the numbers?" Ibiki asked.

"Yes sir, here's the list of all the points each team and person managed to collect." A Chunin said while handing Ibiki a scroll with all the scores.

Ibiki studied the list "A lot of teams went for the bare minimum. In fact only five teams have more than 400.000 points."

"And who is the absolute winner?" Another Chunin asked.

"That would be team seven with 1.365.000 points. But it looks like 1.155.000 of those are exclusively thanks to Naruto Uzumaki."

"One kid made over a million? Damn, he's good!"

"So who won the betting pool?"

The betting pool was another proud tradition of the Chunin exams where every Jonin and Chunin could place bets on which teams they thought would pass which tests. This year with the new format, there was also the option on betting on which team they thought would win.

"let's see. Another Chunin said while reading a massive scroll that held all the best made by the various teams."

"The winners for 'fastest team' is Asuma Sarutobi from Konoha who correctly betted on his own team."

A small round of applause was given to the bearded Jonin when he came forward to collect his winnings.

"The winner for 'first team that is caught' is Katuya Jiko from Suna who correctly betted on the team from Suna that was the first one thrown out."

Another small round of applause went to the Jonin from Suna who came to get his cash, much to the dismay of his friend whose team he betted on.

After another few small rounds for various bets it was time for the big pot.

"And finally the big event: 'The team and person that collected the most points', " The Chunin said while all the ninja in the room were waiting to see who won, "The winners are Maito Gai for betting on his own team and Hatake Kakashi who betted on Naruto Uzumaki as the big winner."

Both Jonin came forward to collect their prize-money. Kakashi was even on time for once since the rules clearly said that not showing up meant forfeiting your cash. Which was a rule they put in place especially for him after he let some Chunin wait for two hours the first year he won something.

After the ceremony the doors opened again and Genma walked back in after having sent team seven on their way. He placed the list of teams that passed the first test in front of him and announced the next round "The bets for the second test are now open: we only accept cash!"

Immediately the Jonin crowded the Senbon-chewing ninja and started placing all kinds of bets on the various categories, including the infamous but ever popular "number of teams that die."

* * *

**omake:**

"So did anyone see how he did it?" Ibiki asked. "I managed to see very other person cheat in some way but I missed Naruto. So how did he manage to get that Royal Flush?"

Everyone was wondering the same thing and looked around hoping that one of them had seen his trick, but eventually it became clear that no one had seen it either.

"You are telling me that nobody saw how he did it?" Ibiki asked incredulous. "There were over twenty Chunin watching his every move and no one saw what he did? Come on people! Someone must have noticed something?"

"I don't think he cheated at all sir." one of the Chunin said. "As incredulous as it sounds I think he really did just lucked out..."

"That's impossible! Obviously he must have cheated some way we just missed it that's all."

meanwhile with team seven:

"Say Naruto how did you cheat anyway?" Hinata asked.

"Cheat? Hinata, I don't cheat! That's very uncool you know. I played every game fair and square." Naruto answered.

"You are telling me you just drew a Royal Flush on pure luck?"

"I guess so? I've always been pretty lucky at cards. It isn't the first time I had that hand."

"Unbelievable!" Sasuke exclaimed, "You really do have the devil's luck you know?"

"Let's just focus on this test shall we?" Naruto said while they were jumping through the trees at high speeds, "we have some catching up to do."

* * *

A/N: Well that was the first test. What do you guys think? Good? Bad? Would you prefer the canon-test instead? Let me know in the reviews.

Also I just noticed I completely forgot team Oto. :( But just for the record: they did pass somehow.

So next up is the second test and it looks like team seven already has some catching up to do.

please R&R


	13. The second test

**Note: I do not own N****aruto.****  
**

**Chapter 13: the second test**

Genma looked at the three members of team seven that were the last to leave the room.

"It's time to explain what the test is all about." Genma said while the three others were paying close attention now.

"We are now in the main building of the samurai training grounds outside Konoha. This entire domain is used by the armies of the daimyo to train and prepare new recruits to the life of a soldier. It is 50 kilometres wide and 100 kilometres long and there are about 576 bases like this one spread throughout the domain. Your job is to decipher the correct base with the clues you have been given and reach it in less than five days. In the meantime you will also have to survive on the domain itself."

"That's seems easy enough. Decipher the clues, find the base. No problem." Naruto said confidently.

"Aha, but there is a catch." Genma said. "Twenty-seven teams passed the first round but only eight will be allowed to enter the third one. So not only do you have to reach the base, you have to be amongst the eight fastest teams to do so."

"So in other words, it's a race?" Hinata asked.

"Yes, Genma confirmed. And to make things worse for you: since you were the last team to leave the casino you are now effectively in last place. The first team already left a full hour ago. So you have some catching up to do if you want to make the top eight."

"But wait a minute!" Naruto quickly said to escape the angry glares his teammates were sending him, "you said there was a bonus if we have enough points!"

"Ah yes," Genma said. "Apart from the three hundred thousand needed to pass you will receive another clue for every 100.000 additional points. Since you have more than a million you will have the maximum of ten clues."

"So that must be a good thing then, huh?" Naruto tried to turn his situation around.

"It will help to decipher the answer faster, but that doesn't mean it will be easier to win. The other teams can also find additional clues to help them out, so your advantage is constantly slipping."

"Well then, let's not waste more time. Give us those clues so we can start."

Genma nodded and handed them a sealed scroll. Inside they found a map of the area, a small survival kit and several clues to help them with the location. Afterwards he simply left them and rejoined the Jonin in the other room.

* * *

"All right let's see what we have." Naruto said while reading the first clue. "The base you are looking for is in the North West quadrant of the grounds."

Sasuke nodded and selected the correct area on the map. "Next."

"The base is less than 5 kilometres from a river."

Sasuke scratched all the bases that did not fit that criteria and nodded again "Next."

"The base has the number 7 in it's name."

Sasuke scratched another 10 bases of the list and nodded again.

Several minutes later they were eventually left with a single base.

"Base 347, Upper North west corner next to the Fire river." Hinata said. "It looks to be about two days travel away from here if we take a direct route."

"No time to waste then. Let's go!" Naruto said while heading towards the door.

"Hold on!" Sasuke stopped him. "I think we better take a different exit."

"Huh? Why would we do that?" Naruto asked confused.

"Just think about it. A lot of the other teams didn't have the same number of clues we did so the odds are they don't have a real clue where they need to go."

"And?"

"What I mean is that some of them will probably stay out there to ambush the other teams when they leave the building."

Hinata understood what he was trying to say and activated her Byakugan to see if he was right. "I see four other teams waiting for us. They have prepared an ambush and will attack us as soon as we leave."

"Dammit! Now what do we do? Wait until they leave?" Naruto asked.

"We can't afford to just sit here and wait it out. Only the first eight teams can participate, remember?" Sasuke added.

"Hold on. I see a way out." Hinata suddenly said as she was still scanning the area with her Byakugan. "There is a large group of those who lost about to leave from the other exit. If we mix up with them we can sneak out undetected and be on our way before anyone realises we already left."

"That's a great idea Hinata-chan!" Naruto exclaimed and gave her a thumbs-up.

And so team seven left the building alongside the group of those who lost. After about half an hour they separated from them and re-entered the domain undetected from the side to head straight for the finish line. They were running for four hours when the night started to fall.

"So how far are we?" Naruto asked?

"We are currently here." Sasuke said pointing at a location on the map. "Our target is at least another twelve hours away at our current speed. I suggest we rest for the night and run all day tomorrow."

"But what if we are too late by then? Why not just run through the night?"

"Naruto, the terrain is dangerous enough as it is. I do not want to navigate it at night if we don't have to. Besides, I doubt many other teams have found the correct answer by now. We have been running straight for the goal for hours straight, the other teams will have to make detours at the other bases to gather more clues before they can make any real progress. I'm sure that arriving at the second day will be enough to make the top eight easily."

"I guess so. So where do we sleep then?"

Sasuke looked at the map again and pointed to a small base further up ahead "There is a cabin just ahead from here. We can stay there at night and get rested."

* * *

The next day:

After they woke up and ate a small breakfast team seven was back on the road towards their goal when a giant windblast suddenly hit them from behind and separated them. Sasuke and Hinata landed next to each other on the grass but Naruto was unlucky enough to get pushed off a cliff and he fell down several hundred meters when he landed in a river and was dragged along with the strong current.

Eventually he managed to overcome his shock and dragged himself to the side where he recuperated a bit before standing up again and looking around. He panicked as he had no idea where he was and he couldn't find either of his friends. The only clue he had was that they were alongside the river when he got separated, so he shrugged his shoulders and started following it in hopes of coming back to known territory.

* * *

Meanwhile:

Sasuke and Hinata had no time to worry about their missing teammate since they had their own problems to deal with. Before them stood the one that had used the windblast to separate their team and she was currently taunting them "Ah, the last of the Uchiha. You are difficult to find. It was a smart idea to leave the main building from one of the side-entrances instead of walking out the main door like some other teams did."

"Who are you? What do you want? What did you do with Naruto?" Sasuke demanded while activating his Sharingan and taking a battle stance.

"My my, so many questions. Let's see if you have what it takes to deserve an answer from me, shall we?"

With that the female dashed forward at speeds that no Genin could possibly hope to match and prepared to strike Sasuke at the side of his face. But luckily the Sharingan warned him of the otherwise impossible to follow speed and he could duck under the attack just in time to sent a punch of his own. "Very good Sasuke-kun. Those eyes are very handy indeed." the female chuckled as she easily avoided Sasuke's attack and countered with one of her own.

Meanwhile Hinata pulled out her bow and prepared to fire several shots at the attacker. She activated her own bloodline to take better aim and couldn't believe what she was seeing. "Sasuke now!" She yelled as she fired the arrows straight at his back. Recognizing the combo they had practised all week Sasuke immediately dropped down for a low kick while all the arrows Hinata launched flew above his head to attack the enemy from two sides at once.

However instead of being hit by the attacks or being forced to retreat the enemy ninja bended his body in an impossible angle to dodge both attacks at once in one fluid movement. Before Sasuke could recover from his surprise he was kicked hard in his stomach and flew back straight at Hinata causing both of them to fall to the ground.

"Not bad. Such teamwork would have killed most Genin in this exam. I can see you became quite strong Sasuke-kun." The enemy taunted them.

"What is up with that guy?!" Sasuke asked "How can a Genin be that strong?"

"Careful Sasuke!" Hinata said with her Byakugan still activated, "That's not a mere Genin. He is wearing a disguise. Looking at his chakra-reserves he is at least Jonin-level!"

"Correct little girl. Those eyes of yours are quite handy indeed. If I wasn't interested in the secrets of the Sharingan I would have definitely tried for a Byakugan instead."

"Who are you?! What do you know about the Sharingan?" Sasuke demanded.

The enemy peeled back his suspiciously realistic looking mask mask to reveal his real snake-like face underneath. "How rude of me! Please allow me to introduce myself: I am Orochimaru of the Sannin. At your service."

'Orochimaru! Oh man this is bad, there's no way we can take one of the Sannin!' they both thought though neither of them visibly flinched. "What do you want with us!"

"I know about Itachi. I know where he is and how you can fight him." Orochimaru simply said. Sasuke eyes were wide open in shock 'Itachi? He knows where he is?'

Suddenly Orochimaru took advantage of the confusion and his neck shot out like a giant snake and before anyone could react he had bitten Sasuke in his collarbone after which he collapsed on the ground and a small seal appeared on the place he was bitten. "Consider this a parting gift. If you want to know more about your brother then you will seek me out."

With that he disappeared while Sasuke finally lost consciousness. Hinata was now in a full blown panic mode with Naruto gone and Sasuke unconscious. Thinking back on their survival-training she lifted Sasuke on her shoulders and looked for a safe hide-out so she could start healing him.

'Naruto, you better be okay! We could really use your help now!' she prayed while she started walking towards a small base she had spotted with her Byakugan.

* * *

Meanwhile Naruto was trying to find his way back to his teammates. He had summoned several smaller owls to scout the area earlier and was now sitting near a small fire to await their report. He cursed himself for relying on Sasuke to hold the map since as a result he had no idea where he was or where he needed to be. He could only hope that one of his owls was successful.

Three minutes later a brown owl landed near him and gave his report "Naruto-sama, I have found another group nearby! They are on the run from a giant bear and will need help or they'll die soon!"

Naruto stood up without thinking and followed his summon to the spot. He knew that helping another team wasn't really a smart tactical decision but he refused to just let them die without even trying to help them. After running for several minutes he heard the sounds of battle up ahead and he landed in a clearing where he saw a giant bear slowly move in on a petite redhead that was desperately trying to clutch a kunai to defend herself. He saw two others, probably her teammates, lying dead on the ground with claw marks on their body as the bear had mauled them earlier.

Without hesitating he channelled chakra in his combatgloves and immediately two sets of claws sprung forth from the metal. They were surrounded by the green residue of his wind-chakra that signified their already impressive cutting power just got multiplied several times.

As the bear raised its massive claw to strike at the young girls head Naruto used his chains to capture it and pulled as hard as he could. The bear was caught by surprise and tumbled back as the chain was pulling on its arm. When the bear fell down he swiped at its though skin with his own set of claws and the wind-enhanced gloves tore through its muscles like a hot knife through butter. Letting out a loud roar of pain it got back up and attempted to bite Naruto with his enormous teeth. But luckily Naruto was faster and he instantaneously replaced the claws for the hidden blade as he struck at the predator's massive head. The blade hit the large teeth head on and tore through the skull with barely any resistance straight at the brain behind it. When the windblade penetrated the soft tissue the bear died immediately and its lifeless body crashed on the forest's floor with a large hole where its head used to be.

Meanwhile Karin was still in a foetus-position waiting for the inevitable claws that would kill her at last. It was only by mere luck that their team had managed to get the bare minimum of 300.000 points needed in the first test and it was obvious to anyone but them that her two teammates weren't ready yet to become Chunin. When the bear found and attacked them she ran away, thinking they would do the same. It wasn't until she heard the scream behind her that she realized they stayed behind to fight it, thinking they were actually good enough to take down such a monster. Some might consider her heartless but the truth was that she didn't feel any sympathy for either of them and couldn't care less they had died. Ever since her father died she never felt at home in Kusa; she wasn't mistreated or anything serious but it always felt like everybody knew some big secret about her and she was left out of the loop. It wasn't until she became somewhat skilled as a medic that they started noticing her and even then she had to work twice as hard to get the same appreciation other medic-nin took for granted. So when she was selected as the medic on the team the village elder had specifically told her that if she screwed it up she was no longer welcome in Kusa. Not that it mattered anyway since she was about to die any second now. 'Come to think of it, what is that bear waiting for anyway? And what was that loud noise just now?'

"Are you okay?" a gentle voice suddenly asked.

She looked up and saw a vague image of a man holding his hand out to her with the dead bear somewhere behind him. She patted the ground for her glasses and when she put them on she saw the face of her rescuer. His wild blond hair was gently swaying in the wind and blue eyes shined brightly as she accepted his hand and he pulled her up to his chest. "Yes, thank you. Who are you?" She asked her saviour.

"My name is Naruto, what's yours?"

"Karin." she said with a small blush on her cheeks. "Thank you for saving me."

"It was nothing Karin-chan." Naruto said while rubbing his hand on the back of his head in embarrassment at the sudden praise. 'Dammit, why am I acting like an immature idiot?' he thought to himself.

"Are you here alone? Don't you have a team?" Karin suddenly noticed that her new hero came by himself rather than being accompanied by his teammates like she first assumed.

Naruto's mood immediately turned around at being reminded of his predicament "I sort of got separated from them. I was actually looking for them when I saw you needed some help so I made a little detour."

'He went out of his way to save me?' Karin was shocked when she heard him say that, nobody had ever done anything like that for her. Suddenly she also knew the perfect way to pay him back.

"I think I can help you with that." She said, "You see: I am a sensor, so I could try and sense for two chakra-signatures by themselves and that way we can know where they are."

"Karin-chan that's amazing!" Naruto said while giving her a big hug much to the girls surprise.

"Th-thank you." she stumbled before focusing on her new task. Spreading her senses out in the general direction Naruto told her they should be she tried to look for a group of two signatures. 'By Kami,' she thought once she sensed Naruto, 'I've never seen so much chakra in one person. His aura is simple amazing and dare I say rather exciting?' she tried to ignore those voices and instead looked for the two signatures she was supposed to locate.

After a few minutes she found a possible match and told Naruto the general area she detected them in. "If you want a more accurate location I need to get closer to them though."

"No problem!" Naruto said while biting his thumb and flashing through several handsigns "summoning jutsu!"

"**Hello Naruto-sama, how can I help you?" **said the mighty but somehow still elegant voice of Minerva when she looked at her summoner and his new companion.

"Hey Minerva, I need a lift to Sasuke and Hinata. Can you carry us there?"

"**No problem. Hop on!" **The owl said as she lowered her back.

Naruto easily climbed on board and positioned himself so that Karin could crawl on before him. "Karin here knows their location so she'll give us directions as we go." he explained to his familiar.

Minerva nodded and spread her wings to take of in the air. After gaining a decent altitude she followed Karin's directions towards Sasuke and Hinata.

* * *

Meanwhile Hinata had carried Sasuke into a nearby base and had put him on a bunk to rest. His new seal started acting up and he developed a fever which she tried to suppress as good as she could with what basic medical knowledge she had. 'I really don't like the look of that seal. I wish Naruto was here to take a look at it.'

As the evening fell she noticed that Sasuke's condition was stabilizing and he was sleeping soundly now so she went out for a while to check her traps again. It wouldn't do to be ambushed while she was left alone after all. As she stood out there she activated her Byakugan again to scan her surroundings and noticed the team of sound-ninjas approaching fast. She quickly went back to the only entrance of the base to place an ambush for them in case they decided to enter. If she could surprise them and take the fight into the small corridor where they can't move she could turn their numerical advantage around in no time.

Dosu and his two teammates neared the base where Sasuke Uchiha should be staying the night and prepared to carry out the orders Orochimaru had given him. He wasn't really sure why he needed to kill the young ninja so badly, but he would do as he was told regardless. 'If we can kill the Uchiha lord Orochimaru will be impressed with our power! This must be a field-test to see how strong we have become. I must succeed at all costs.' he reasoned.

As they approached the entrance he was initially unimpressed with the lack of any security 'those Konoha Genin are too spoilt, they don't know what the life of a real ninja is like.'. However a carefully set springrazor sprung out of nowhere and almost tore Kin limb from limb if not for Zaku's fast reactions. Despite pushing her out of the way she still got hit pretty bad and there was a nasty wound on her left leg. In light of this he became more careful. "This area is trapped! Zaku, tear it apart!" he ordered.

The other man nodded and aimed his two arms at the ground before them. He pushed chakra into the tubes that were implanted in them and launched his destructive technique "sound style: decapitating airwaves!" he yelled as the tubes in his arm vibrated softly and released a destructive blast of air. The waves crashed into the ground and several more traps were forcibly triggered as a result. When the dust cleared Dosu saw that a safe path was now open directly to the door of the base. "Move in quickly! This must have alerted them to our presence, we can't lose the element of surprise now!"

The three Genin rushed towards the entrance and came out in a long corridor. As they ran through it they failed to notice Hinata dropping from the ceiling behind them aiming for Kin who was struggling with her bleeding leg. "Eight trigrams: 32 palms!" She said as she unleashed her technique on the back of her unsuspecting opponent. Since there was no resistance at all she quickly went for all the weak spots and shut down her main chakra-core causing the Kunoichi to go in shock from the sudden collapse of her chakra-network and black out. Realizing his error Dosu and Zaku tried to turn around but the small space of the corridor hindered their movements and they weren't fast enough to stop a giant wave of water crashing down on them "water style: Big Wave Attack."

"Zaku now!" Dosu yelled to his teammate who aimed both his implanted canons behind them to literally blast them out of the death-trap they found themselves in. Using the blasts as propulsion Zaku and Dosu shot out of the small corridor and back in the open outside where they could even the field.

Hinata cursed at their escape but quickly went after them to press her advantage further. Standing in the entrance she pulled out her bow and quickly fired several chakra-arrows at the two remaining sound-nin. This time it was Dosu who reacted first and he raised his modified gauntlet to let loose a sonic burst. The frequency of the sonic burst tore through the sky and managed to disrupt the arrows causing them to dissipate early. 'I am glad that worked, we would have lost this match already if it didn't.'

Hinata was equally surprised her arrows got destroyed so easily 'What kind of weapon is that? He channelled chakra in that gauntlet of his and suddenly there was an explosion of chakra coming from it that destroyed my arrows.'

Using this new victory as a morale-boost Dosu and Zaku stood back up to resume the fight. Zaku aimed his open palms at Hinata and let loose another attack "sound-style: decapitating airwaves!" he yelled as two blasts of wind shot at Hinata.

"Wind-style: open palm blast!" a voice shot out from above as an equally strong gust of wind hit Zaku's attack and stopped it.

Looking up everyone saw Naruto in the sky flying on a giant owl. He dropped down and landed next to his teammate "Hey Hinata, need a hand?" he said with a smile.

Hinata was glad to see Naruto again and smiled at his timely entrance. "Naruto! Am I glad to see you!"

"So what can you tell us about these guys?"

"The one who looks like a mummy has some sort of gauntlet that lets loose sonic blasts, try not to get hit by them. The other one has these tubes implanted in his arms that allow him to fire blasts of wind."

"Got it, I'll take 'tube-guy' you get the mummy." Naruto said while dashing of towards Zaku.

'Tube-guy? I'll show that bastard not to underestimate me!' Zaku thought while aiming his arm-canons at Naruto and channelling them at maximum power "Sound-style: extreme decapitating airwaves!". Two enormous blasts of wind sprang forth from his hands going straight at Naruto who simply lifted his hand in response and yelled his own technique"Wind-style: hot current."

The airwaves from Zaku's attack suddenly rose up and flew over everyone's hit to hit some of the trees above them.

"What? What happened?" He asked in confusion while looking at the trees that got hit instead. 'Did I miss? No, I couldn't have missed so much at this range. But then why did it steer off like that?'

Meanwhile Naruto was right next to him and punched him straight in the face making him fall down on the ground. "It's simple really, my Hot Current heated the air of your wind-attack. And since warm air rises the entire attack steered upwards. If you seriously studied wind-techniques rather than relying on those tubes of yours to cheat you would have known that!"

Zaku tried to stand up but Naruto dropped down and landed his knee hard in the sound-nin's stomach. In a last ditch effort Zaku aimed his arms straight at Naruto at point-blanc range and tried to unleash his technique that would surely kill him. However Naruto anticipated the attack and had already taken out his hidden blade enhanced with wind-chakra. Without hesitation he struck it straight at Zaku's chest piercing his heart and killing him instantaneously.

"Zaku no!" Dosu yelled while aiming his sound-amplifier at Naruto "You'll pay for this: Sonic Blast!"

However before he could unleash his attack his arm and torso was shredded to pieces with several arrows coming from Hinata's bow. "Never take your eyes from the enemy." She simply said before a last shot hit him between the eyes and he fell down dead as well.

"That were all of them." Hinata said, "I wonder what they wanted though. It looks like they just attacked us for no good reason."

"They probably wanted to get rid of some competition." Naruto shrugged. "By the way, where is Sasuke?"

Hinata's eyes turned serious at the mention of their third teammate "after you got separated from us we were attacked by Orochimaru. He did some weird stuff to Sasuke and placed a seal on him. Later he got pretty sick but I think I managed to pull him through, though that seal still bothers me."

"I'll go take a look." Naruto said.

"Is the battle over?" A voice suddenly came from above and Hinata turned to see Naruto's owl still hovering above them with a girl on its back. The bird landed in the clearing and let her passenger descend.

"Naruto, who's that?" She asked.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Hinata, meet Karin. I met her a few miles West from here after I saved her from a bear. She is actually the one who led us here. She is a sensor so without her I wouldn't have fond you guys so fast."

"Pleasure to meet you Karin." Hinata said to the redhead.

"The pleasure is all mine, Hinata" Karin returned the polite bow to the other girl.

* * *

Later in the base Naruto was looking at Sasuke's collarbone where Orochimaru's seal was placed and frowned at what he saw 'Juinjutsu: cursed seals.' He thought. 'this is way above my current level.'

"Can you make sense of it?" Hinata asked behind him with Karin in tow.

"This seal is pretty advanced. A complete removal would take a lot of time and resources I don't have right now. I'm afraid he'll be stuck with it a little longer."

"So there's nothing you can do?" Hinata said while dropping her shoulders.

"I can't remove it completely but I suppose I could place a second seal over it to block this one off. Since this seal has three prongs I should be able to disrupt it with a 4-pronged blocking seal. That would stabilize it until the Hokage or Kakashi can remove it completely."

"Can I help with that?" Karin suddenly asked. "I've always had a talent for seals. My dad used to say it was something I got from my mum. A simple blocking seal wouldn't be too much of a problem."

"Sure thing Karin-chan!" Naruto said, "I could use a second pair of hands with this. It'll make preparing the array a lot faster."

With that Karin and Naruto set out to work on a four-pronged blocking seal array. Naruto was impressed that Karin seemed to be quite knowledgeable of seals despite not having been formally trained in them. 'She really has a natural sense for them. That and the red hair. I wonder if...? I'll look into it later.'

After ten minutes they finished with the design and Naruto placed the array over Sasuke's upper torso "blocking seal: lock!" he said while channelling his chakra into the seal as it spread out from the paper and placed itself on Sasuke's body around the cursed seal to block the cursed chakra from interfering with his body any longer.

"There it's done. Now he should wake up in few hours and we can finally go towards the meeting place. It wouldn't do if we weren't amongst the first eight teams to reach it after all that happened."

After a short sleep of five hours Sasuke finally awoke with a major headache but otherwise completely fine. After having a small breakfast the four of them moved out again (they decided that Karin could tag along with them until they were back in Konoha as leaving her alone in the middle of the test was too dangerous) and went straight for the base they should have reached yesterday.

Luckily they were still on time as only three other teams had beat them there. By the end of the fourth day the eighth team had finally appeared. They finalists were team seven, team eight, team nine, team ten and team eleven from the Konoha rookies alongside an older team with that guy called Kabuto they had met earlier. From Suna there was team Baki with Gaara, Kankuro and Temari. And from Taki the team with Fu, Krios and Heero.

After everyone was assembled the Hokage appeared himself to address the finalists:

"Congratulations all of you for passing the second test. You are now only one step away from the promotion to Chunin that all of you are looking forward to so much. The final test will be held in Konoha itself one month from now. But first I would like to ask you all a question: what is the purpose of this exam?"

The Genin looked confused at each other as if it were some kind of trick question they didn't see the answer to until Sakura raised her hand and tried the most obvious thing she could think of "To see which of us are ready to be promoted to Chunin?"

"No." the Hokage simply said to much confusion of the assembled Genin "Or rather, that is not the only reason we hold them. After all: most people get promoted in the field and only a select few receive the honour of passing the exams. No, these exams are held for another reason: to allow the villages to compete with each other without going to war!"

"What? What does that mean?" Lee asked.

"It's simple really: these exams, at least the final part of them, will be closely watched by all kinds of noble lords and rich merchants. If a village makes a good impression here they will be more likely to invest money in that village and it will prosper in turn. That is why these exams are shared between all the villages instead of just letting each village take care of their own promotions. I want you all to remember that in the final test: you are fighting not just for yourself, but to represent your village."

"So what is this final test all about then?" Naruto asked.

"I will let the third examiner explain it himself. Yamato, if you'd please"

"Thank you, Lord Hokage." Yamato said while stepping forward.

"Traditionally the final test is a tournament where each of you can show the judges what skills you have and why you deserve to be a Chunin."

Most of the Genin were already aware of the traditional third test and were already planning different strategies against different opponents they could meet when Yamato spoke again.

"However this year there are too many contestants for a regular tournament. Since this tournament doubles as an exhibition for the villages that is watched by noblemen and merchants we can't afford to waste the spectator's time with 24 brackets."

"What does that mean?" Kiba asked. "Will not all of us be allowed to participate? So what? Will we have preliminary rounds?"

The notion that there would be preliminary rounds was met with a loud murmur amongst all the candidates who weren't prepared to fight again so soon after completing the second match. But they were quickly silenced when Yamato cleared his throat to speak again.

"Normally we would indeed hold preliminary rounds to reduce the number of finalists. However this year we have found a different solution that limits the scope of the tournament while still allowing everyone here to participate."

This news was met with a lot of confusion, not the least from the gathered senseis who already anticipated there would be preliminary matches like they did every time this happened.

"What do you mean?" Baki, the sensei from Suna asked.

"Allow me to explain," Yamato said, "In order to keep the fights going we have decided that the third round will be a team-based tournament instead of the usual individual tournament. With exactly eight teams we can hold a manageable tournament while still having twenty-four contestants. And since ninjas usually fight in teams anyway this will be more realistic than one-on-one fights. However do take note that promotions still happen on an individual level, so if you depend on your teammates too much without contributing anything yourself you won't make Chunin even if your team does very well."

"With that out of the way the second round is officially over. You now have one month to prepare before the tournament starts. Use it well." the Hokage said to the assembled Genin before they all returned back to Konoha to prepare for the exams in their own way.

* * *

A/N: And that was the second test, next up are the finals with team-based combat rather than individual fights. I wonder how that will change things... But first make a playlist with "Eye of the tiger", "push it to the limit", "you're the best" and "holding out for a hero" because it's time for a training montage!

So please R&R and I'll see you guys next time


	14. Preparing for the finals

******I do not own Naruto.**

**Chapter 14 – Preparing for the finals**

Team seven was gathered in their training grounds while Gai went over the training schedule they would be following the coming month.

"Now as you all know the exams will be team based this time, which changes a lot of the dynamics of the usual fights. After the short introduction Yamato has given the senseis a more detailed explanation of what will happen as well as the opponents for the first match which were randomly chosen."

"So what can we expect, sensei?" Hinata asked.

"It goes like this: at the start of each battle there will be a random coin toss, the team that wins the coin toss has the option of choosing whether it will be a true team battle or a series of one-on-one fights until one team is completely taken out. Depending on which teams you face that is the first tactical decision you need to make. After that the usual rules apply: a match lasts until a person is knocked out, gives up, the referee calls the match or until... someone dies."

"And do you know who will fight who as well?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes, the combatants for the first round are decided upfront to allow each team the chance to prepare properly. After that though every new round will be randomly selected on the spot. In real life you don't always have the option to know your opponents upfront every time after all."

"That makes sense I guess. So who do we fight?"

Gai pulled out a scroll with all the info he had been given and started reading "The first round consist of these four match-ups in this order: First up is team seven, you will face team nine. Next up is team eight who will face team ten. After that it is team Baki from Suna who faces that older team from Konoha with Yakushi's kid and finally team eleven faces a team from Taki. After that the four winners draw lots again to determine the second round and finally the two remaining teams will meet in the final."

"So our first match is against Neji-niiisan?" Hinata asked with a frown.

"Is he still acting like an asshole to you?" Sasuke asked. They all knew that the relationship between Hinata and her cousin was very strained. He used to pick on her a lot when she was younger and still had issues with her confidence and stuttered a lot. She had grown a lot since those days but Neji still didn't ease up on her after all that time. He stopped claiming she was weak though, since even he could no longer say that with a straight face, but he still tried to undermine her and challenge her at every turn.

It actually took a while before they realized the problem since Neji was professional enough to drop whatever issues plagued him while on the job. Therefore he never said a bad word on any of their joined missions. But at home during the Gentle Fist – practices he always commented on her style and said her posture was all wrong. He even called it a disgrace that the heiress was wasting her time with lesser arts like medical jutsu. Naruto and Sasuke had often wanted to beat Neji when Hinata came back all flustered and almost crying after another vicious comment but they were always stopped by Hinata who hadn't wanted to get them involved. However now that they were matched against each other they were free to dish out some long overdue justice.

Meanwhile Gai interrupted their thoughts and got their attention again to prepare a training schedule for the coming month. "Now originally I had planned to let each of you train individually to improve your skills. But since this test will feature team-based battles I think it is equally important that we keep working on our teamwork as well."

The three Genin nodded and kept listening.

"I propose that we do our usual teamwork exercises in the morning starting at seven A.M. till noon. Afterwards you will each train for the rest of the day with your tutor on individual skills."

"Tutor? Who is going to train us then?" Naruto asked.

"Kakashi has proposed to work with Sasuke, he says you need more training with the Sharingan. And he also thinks about teaching you a new move of his."

Sasuke nodded. He had trained with the ANBU-commander before on the various uses of the Sharingan a few times and he could really appreciate what that man could do even if he wasn't an Uchiha. He really deserved to be called a genius.

"Naruto, you will be trained by Jiraiya. He is back in town for the month and wants to oversee some of your progress. I'm sure you two can figure something out?"

"The Pervy Sage is back?" Naruto said with a smile. Jiraiya was his godfather who dropped by now and then when he wasn't working on his spy-network. Unfortunately he also had some bad habits like peeping at women in the hotsprings, which quickly earned him the nickname 'Pervy Sage'. Naruto was looking forward to training with him again since despite his eccentric behaviour Jiraiya was still a very talented ninja and an even better teacher.

"And Hinata, after discussing it with your father we have decided that you will train with me for the rest of the month. He would like to do it himself but his responsibilities as clan head prohibit him from taking much time off. So during the next month we will focus on your taijutsu and see how we can incorporate your Byakugan and Gentle Fist with your other techniques."

Hinata nodded though was a bit disappointed that her father couldn't train her personally. He had really warmed up a lot since she graduated early, something he often liked to boast about to anyone who was there to hear it, but his responsibilities as clan head sometimes held him back from acting like the father he wanted to be.

"Good then. Now that everyone is up to speed we can begin our training. Let us run ten laps around Konoha to warm up before we start with the real work!" Gai shouted before he took off with the rest of his team catching up to begin their normal training exercises.

* * *

With Sasuke:

After the morning training with his team Sasuke went to the private training grounds Kakashi had arranged for the next month. He arrived to see Kakashi already there and going over some scroll he was reading. 'Thank Kami he got rid of his bad habit of showing up late all the time. I remember how he always used to show up at least one hour after the appointed time. I guess being ANBU-commander means you have to take things more seriously.'

Kakashi noticed that he had entered the training grounds and put the scroll away to greet him. "Ah Sasuke, good that you showed up on time. How are you feeling?"

"Pretty good I guess." Sasuke shrugged.

"And how did removing that seal go? Did Jiraiya look at it yet?"

Sasuke nodded and showed his shoulder where the cursed seal was located. It had a strong inhibitor around it and it had already shrunk to half its regular size. "He said that the counterseal they developed from studying Jugo's bloodline has worked perfectly. Its internal structure is being slowly destroyed and it should be completely gone in two to three weeks. At least that's how long it took for Anko."

"That's good. And what about your control in the meantime? I remember that Anko couldn't do much while the seal was being destroyed since it messed with her chakra-control."

"That shouldn't happen to me. Jiraiya said I was lucky that Naruto put the first seal on there before it had fully taken root. As such it never actually activated and there was no need to purify the rest of my chakra-network like he did for Anko. The seal only works on the isolated part."

"That's great." Kakashi said with relief, "Anyway about your training: now that Gai has managed to drill some decent speed in your body and your Sharingan has the necessary minimum of two tomoe in each eye I can safely teach you the Chidori without risking the tunnel vision it usually causes."

"The Chidori? I never heard of that jutsu before. What does it do?"

"It's normal you haven't heard of it. The Chidori is a personal jutsu I created." Kakashi said proudly. "It is recognized as an A-class assassination jutsu and is almost completely unstoppable. I recently added it to the ANBU-scrolls and only a select few have manged to fully control it."

"That seems amazing. Are you sure I am ready for such technique? I'm not sure I can handle A-rank jutsus yet if even ANBU have difficulty with them."

"It is considered A-rank because the high speed it requires causes the user to develop a tunnel vision that leaves him vulnerable for other attacks. Therefore only the best of the ANBU can pull this technique off without endangering themselves. However if you do the Chidori with your Sharingan activated you won't run this risk. So you should be safe to use it as long as you activate the Sharingan first."

"I see, with the Sharingan I still get advanced warnings if there are oncoming projectiles so the biggest risk of this technique is nullified. Any other things I should know before we start?"

"the second biggest requirement is that the Chidori requires a great deal of speed and stamina but with Gai as your sensei that shouldn't be a problem. Also this technique works by focusing all your kinetic energy in a single entry point laced with lightning chakra, therefore will be a lot more effective the faster you move at the point of impact. Doing it while standing still is almost impossible and not nearly as devastating. So you should always get a running start before trying this technique."

"All right, I think I got it. We can begin the training."

"Excellent. Let's start with getting your lightning manipulation up to speed. It will save us a lot more time later to get things right. Now take this leave and try to crumble it with you chakra alone."

Sasuke nodded and set out to start his new training.

* * *

With Naruto:

After Jiraiya missed their appointment and Naruto had to drag him away from the hotsprings where he was peeping through a hole in the fence the two of them finally arrived at a deserted training spot outside the village.

"So kid how you've been huh?" the white-haired man asked his godson, "It's been a few months since I last saw you. Anything new I should know about? Met any girls yet?"

"What!" Naruto shouted indignantly, "is that all you can think about? You're nothing but a damn pervert!"

"Me? A pervert? How can you say that Naruto?" Jiraiya said while looking genuinely offended.

Naruto felt bad for offending his godfather and was about to apologize when Jiraiya's demeanor suddenly changed completely and he took a wild stance.

"I am a super pervert!" he announced while not looking sorry at all as he said so.

Naruto's eye started twitching and he couldn't help but start yelling angry again "How can you be proud of that? You are supposed to be a legendary Sannin for crying out loud! Can't you take my training serious here for a second?"

Jiraiya laughed but eventually seemed to control himself "Of course, of course. But first tell me what you were working on before I arrived. Let's see if I can help you with that before I start introducing new stuff."

And so Naruto went over the scrolls he found in Uzu and explained he planned on following the training regime described in there. Jiraiya was surprised he found such a valuable scroll and agreed that following that regime was the best basis to work with. He was a bit disappointed that Naruto already signed a summoning scroll since he was planning on training him with the toads but he understood why he choose to sign his family scroll instead and had no hard feelings.

So Naruto went over the first scroll and they were both heavily surprised that it immediately opened with the Shadow Clone jutsu. They didn't expect an A-rank technique at the start so they looked again to make sure it was indeed the first scroll and when they found it was they started reading it again to see why the technique was considered beginner material.

* * *

From the Scroll:

The Shadow clone jutsu is traditionally among the first jutsus an Uzumaki learns. While many of our allies consider this a high-rank technique due to the high chakra cost it is actually about the only clone technique a beginning Uzumaki can perform. Due to our clan's unusually high chakra-reserves using a normal clone is almost impossible for a beginning ninja since it requires too much precise control to pull off. That is why the Shadow Clone is an ideal choice for Uzumakis since the technique is all about pouring as much chakra in it as you can and has almost no requirements for control.

Furthermore Shadow Clones, when properly dispelled and not destroyed in combat, have the ability to return all their thoughts and experiences back to its creator and other clones. This is why most other villages treat it as a tool for spying as it allows them to send a clone into a base without running any risk themselves. While this is indeed a very novel use of the Shadow Clone it was not with this purpose that it was created by the first Uzukage. The secondary but most useful use of the Shadow Clone is that they can be used to decrease the time needed to train in chakra manipulation and elemental control.

* * *

Jiraiya raised his eyebrows as they read that part "Using Shadow Clones to train? I can't even imagine a regular ninja trying that. Even making one would be too noticeable in his reserves to even think it could be a feasible shortcut."

Naruto simply shrugged "I never really tried to see how much I can make but I should easily be able to do a few hundred or more."

"Damn, kid. Just how much chakra do you have?"

Naruto shrugged again and continued reading.

* * *

In the Scroll:

Experiments have shown that using fifty clones at the same time and dispelling and replacing the ten best performing ones each hour yields the optimal result in speeding up training. Using fifty clones simultaneously will speed things up tenfold on average; the reason it is not the expected fifty is that many clones will come up with the same ideas and you will not have unique memories from each clone.

It is also ill-advised to combine two training sessions at once since the memories will blend into each other too much to make sense of.

* * *

"And then it shows you how to make the Shadow clone, but I already know it so we can skip that part." Naruto said while reading from the Scroll.

"So there's a catch after all huh? I knew it was too good to be true. Still by speeding up your training ten times we can make a lot of progress this month." Jiraiya grinned at the possibilities.

Naruto agreed that it would be a serious help in speeding things up but he wondered why there weren't more scrolls with techniques in there. After all if every Uzumaki trained like that you would expect that they had amassed quite an extensive library over the years. He knew from Sasuke that the Uchiha had a vast library of almost every move they had copied. Even moves they couldn't do themselves because they were part of a bloodline were documented anyway. The same could be said for the Senju who had created almost over ten thousand techniques, all precisely documented and safely stored away in the deepest ANBU-vaults. So why didn't the Uzumaki have a similar library of techniques?

He decided to continue reading and discovered that after that introduction the scroll recommended testing your natural chakra affinity and then continuing with the appropriate scroll. So he placed the first scroll back and picked up the scroll with the kanji for wind on it.

* * *

The wind-scroll:

Out of all the elements Wind is known as the most aggressive one. A wind-user is someone who dominates the battlefield with aggressive and destructive tactics. The Wind's ability to combine brute force of a hurricane with the cutting ability of a sharp blade, all at extreme high speeds, is what makes this element the preferred choice for the no-nonsense close-combat warrior. The downside of Wind is that it lacks a good defense, therefore most wind-users prefer to dodge rather than block. A Wind-user is always in motion, just like the element it is modeled after.

In order to start developing one's bond with Wind a ninja best starts with the leaf cutting exercise as described below...

* * *

"And then it explains how to cut a leaf with chakra." Naruto read out loud.

"You already know how to do that?" Jiraiya asked while handing Naruto a leaf and taking over the scroll.

Naruto nodded and focused his chakra in the leaf until a cut appeared in the middle and it split in two. "I've been practicing this for over a year now."

"Not bad, not bad..." Jiraiya commented, "But according to the scroll you should be able to do that almost instantaneously instead of taking ten seconds. So it looks like you'll have to keep working on it for now."

"Oh come on! Do I have to?" Naruto whined.

"There are no shortcuts Naruto, now get to it."

Naruto grumbled and created the fifty necessary clones to start. They each tried different approaches to try and reduce the time needed to cut the leaf. After one hour there were ten clones that managed to get it down to eight seconds. As instructed by the scroll they dispelled themselves and immediately all the remaining Naruto's received a wealth of information on the possible techniques they had each tried. just like the scroll warned there were many doubles but in the end he isolated three distinct tricks. When he tried all three tricks at the same time he managed to cut the leaf in just under six seconds.

"This is amazing!" he said "by combining all techniques at once I can reduce the time a lot faster than each managed individually." He immediately created ten replacement clones and they all set out again.

This cycle continued for the rest of the day until he eventually got it down to three seconds by nightfall.

"Not bad, kid." Jiraiya commented upon seeing the progress he made in one day. "You should rest for now and we'll continue tomorrow. Once you finish the first step we'll continue with the second."

Naruto simply groaned an pulled himself up before heading home to get some well-deserved rest.

* * *

With Hinata:

Hinata and Gai went to one of the many dojos in the village. Gai had reserved the indoors training hall for the month to get some privacy while they trained. Hinata followed her teacher inside and was surprised to see an elder from her clan, Hyuga Shitori, there waiting for them.

"Ah, Gai." he greeted the other man, "right on time. Are you ready to take the oath?"

"What oath?" Hinata asked in confusion, "What are you talking about Shitori-sama?"

"Just a standard precaution, my dear." Shitori answered, "In order to help you with your training Gai has been given permission to look into some of the advanced techniques of the Gentle Fist. Since he is an outsider he has to take an oath of secrecy where he swears not to reveal any of our clan-secrets to other people except main branch members of the Hyuga clan."

"It's actually quite standard for clans to protect their techniques like that." Gai explained, "After all it wouldn't do if one leak could spill hundreds of years of clan traditions."

Shitori nodded and took a document from his robes that he presented to Gai. Gai took a quick glance and then bit his thumb while signing the document in blood. After he signed a small seal lit up to signify the completion. "There, you are now recognized as a privileged instructor of the Gentle Fist." Shitori announced while handing over a series of scrolls after which he left to leave the two alone for training.

While Hinata was warming up Gai looked at the various scrolls and looked at the style and the techniques that were written down. After reading through them all he frowned and looked again as if searching for something that wasn't there.

"Is something wrong?" Hinata asked after she was done with warm-up.

"Well I've been going through all the scrolls and it seems that I found something quite odd about the Gentle Fist, something I hadn't noticed before." Gai said with a frown.

"What do you mean sensei?" Hinata asked.

"Well it looks as if these techniques are rather old, is that right?" he carefully asked.

"Yes," Hinata said with a hint of pride, "the Gentle Fist is a proud tradition that dates back almost a hundred years."

Gai sighed "That's what I was afraid off."

"What do you mean?"

"While it is good to stick to tradition, there is also such a thing as stubbornness. When I looked at these techniques I noticed that some of them are, for lack of a better description, outdated and obsolete. They don't incorporate any of the more modern approaches to taijutsu. I didn't even see a single technique that uses kicks or grapples for instance. If it wasn't for the Byakugan supporting critical hits the Gentle Fist would never be as strong as it could be."

Hinata frowned at hearing her teacher point out the flaws in her family style, but unlike the rest of her clan would be she wasn't personally offended and saw the logic in his words. "To be honest I had similar ideas before, but my father doesn't want to hear about them. What do you think we should do then?"

Gai smiled at her youthful answer and gave her a reassuring thumbs up. "We will show your clansmen what they have been missing out on. We shall work this month to improve the Gentle fist into a more modern style while still keeping all the old things that makes it powerful. When they see how you perform they will be forced to acknowledge that it is time for a change."

Hinata smiled enthusiastically "Do you think we could incorporate my bow into the style as well? It would be great if I could keep using it in short-range battles."

Gai thought it over and decided that it could work. "A bow is pretty tricky since it is by definition a long range weapon, but if we find a way to sheath and unsheathe it at the drop of a hat we should be able to work with it. But for now let us focus on standard taijutsu. Do you know those exercises you used to do to release chakra from your fingertips?"

Hinata nodded.

"I want you to do the same exercises but focusing on your feet instead. If we can manage to have the same devastating effects from your kicks as well as your punches we can really work on creating some variation in your moves."

For the rest of the day Hinata tried to release her chakra from her feet in various ways to see what could and could not be done. She found out that the optimal way involved releasing it from the top or bottom of her feet rather than from the toes or heel. Since using chakra on your feet is not done by most ninjas, except fro treewalking or waterwalking, it took quite while to reach the same level of control she was used to having from her hands but eventually she reached a level where it could at least be done well enough to be able to start creating new techniques. So by the time the sun set they decided to call it a day and she went home for the night while Gai worked out some taijutsu style that could work with the new Gentle Fist.

* * *

At the Iceberg:

It was around nine PM when Naruto finally came home from the first day of training. He was pretty beat up from using his shadow clones continuously for the entire day. 'Man, I used more clones in one day than I normally use in a whole month!' but before he could open his door one of the ANBU, in his regular clothes, called out to him.

"Hey Naruto, you have a visitor."

"A visitor? For me?"

"Yeah, a girl wandered in earlier. She said she was looking for you. Someone gave her your address without mentioning that she went into an ANBU safe house. She is in the lobby for the moment."

Naruto nodded and went to the lobby to see who came for him. He immediately recognized the red hair as soon as he saw his visitor sitting in one of the chairs with her face down and resting on the palm of her hands. "Karin? Is that you?"

The redhead looked up and tried smiling at him but he could see from the red in her eyes that she had been crying earlier. He went over and tried comforting her. "What happened? Are you still in Konoha? I thought the other teams had all left already?" He then noticed that she was wearing civilian clothes and wasn't wearing her Kusa-headband like she did in the exams. He realized that this could take a while so he invited her into his flat and offered her a cup of tea which she gratefully accepted. "So what happened?" he asked again after she calmed down a bit.

Karin looked up and hesitantly starting telling everything that happened after she came back from the second test. She explained how her sensei was furious that the rest of her team died 'in her place' and that he called her a failure as a medic since it was her job to look out for them. The other two teams from Kusa were also mad at her and nobody of her friends wanted to talk to her and they all ignored her until their captain showed up later. The Jonin in charge had simply looked at her with a mix of anger and disgust and told her she was no longer welcome in Kusa. He then took her headband and ripped it of before kicking her out of the hotel they were staying in. Not knowing anybody else she asked around for his address and ended up in the building until someone told her to wait in the lobby.

Naruto meanwhile was almost boiling in rage after hearing what happened to Karin. 'How dare they treat her like that? It's not her fault those two idiots got themselves killed against that bear.' He took a few deep breaths to calm himself and decided that he would help Karin. "Don't worry Karin-chan. I'll help you. I'm sure the Hokage could offer you a place in Konoha. After all you are a trained medic and we could always use more of those."

Karin's eyes opened in surprise at hearing someone wanting to help her out and smiled from happiness. 'He's going to help me? Is this really happening? Someone actually cares about me?'

"It's rather late now, so we'll go first thing tomorrow. In the meantime you can sleep here in the spare bedroom. I sent some clones ahead to prepare it."

"Thank you." Karin said and surprised both of them by giving him a hug. 'Oh Kami, I'm hugging him? Why did I do that? Now he'll be mad and won't want me to stay anymore.' Afraid of what was going to happen she subconsciously held on tighter.

Meanwhile Naruto was equally surprised at the sudden hug but figured she must have went through a lot and not really knowing what else to do simply hugged her back while gently rubbing her back and trying to put her at ease.

After a minute Karin finally let go and awkwardly thanked him again while heading to her new room for the night. She got in bed and tried to catch some sleep. But she couldn't help but keep thinking at what happened earlier 'He hugged me back? He actually hugged me back? Why did he do that? Does... does he like me?' She wondered before finally falling asleep from exhaustion.

Naruto meanwhile had similar thoughts and while staring at the ceiling of his room he wondered about why she hugged him so suddenly and what the Hokage would decide to do with her tomorrow. 'I really hope she can stay in Konoha. A beautiful girl like her doesn't deserve to be treated like that... Wait? Did I just call her beautiful? Where did that come from?' he wondered before falling asleep as well and having a dream about a girl with red hair.

* * *

A/N: And I'm going to cut it here. The chapter was growing too big to put it all in one place so there will be two chapters about the training month instead.

Apart from a few new training regimes Karin made another appearance. I believe this is the part in canon where Orochimaru picked her up, but in this story she has visited Naruto instead. What will this small change mean for her life? keep reading to find out.

Please R&R.


	15. A month of training

**NOTE: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO  
**

**15 – A month of training**

The next day Naruto took Karin along with him to see the Hokage after sending a clone to his team meeting explaining what happened. Karin was quite surprised that Naruto could just go in and talk to the leader of the village like that. In Kusa it was unthinkable that a Genin could get an audience with the leader unless he was accompanied by at least a Jonin, and even then you needed an appointment, which could easily take several weeks if it wasn't an emergency. When she looked for Naruto's home the day before it was more out of desperation than anything else. She didn't truly expect him to get such results that fast and as he was talking she was quite surprised with the kind of relationship they apparently had that he could openly call the Hokage 'old man' and get away with it.

When they arrived at the Hokage Tower they saw Iruka at the mission desk organizing scrolls and handing them out to the various teams, including a few of the Genin teams who didn't make it to the finals and were now back on duty as if the Chunin exams never happened. The scarred man looked up and smiled as he saw Naruto enter and walk towards him. "Hey Naruto, congratulations on making it to the finals! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be training right now? You shouldn't underestimate your opponents, you know."

"I know that Iruka-sensei." Naruto replied, "But I came to see the Hokage about something important. Is he free right now?"

"You should really make an appointment first Naruto. You can't just always barge in whenever you please" Iruka lectured him but let them pass nonetheless "but as luck would have it he is free right now. Just make it quick as he has a lot of important things to do."

Naruto nodded and went upstairs to the Hokage's office dragging a bewildered Karin behind him.

The third Hokage was busy doing his daily paperwork, something he never really enjoyed about the job though it wasn't as bad as people made it look, when he heard the loud knock on his door followed by the familiar voice of his pseudo-grandchild "hey old man, are you busy?". He suppressed a chuckle at Naruto's antics before calling him inside.

When the door opened and he saw Naruto enter alongside the redhead his eyes bulged and for a second he thought he saw Minato and Kushina walk in his office again. He quickly schooled his features however and addressed the pair "Ah Naruto, take a seat. So how are you doing? Is your training progressing well? Who is your friend? I don't believe I've ever seen her in Konoha." he said while studying Karin intently to see who she was and why she was hanging around Naruto.

Naruto and Karin sat down on the chairs before the desk and smiled at his grandfather-figure. "My training is going great, old man! I'll definitely become Chunin, you'll see."

"And Jiraiya isn't giving you to much trouble I hope? He was always a bit aloof at times, one of his bad habits I never really got rid of I'm afraid."

"Nah, the Pervy Sage is a great help. But enough about me, I came here to talk about Karin." he said while introducing the embarrassed girl who sat next to him and didn't know what to say to the Hokage.

"Karin, is it?" He asked the girl with an intent gaze, "I don't believe I recognize you, and I make it a matter of pride to know everyone in the village..." he let the subtle question hang in the air.

"That's because she is not from Konoha." Naruto explained, "She is, or rather was, from Kusa. We met in the Chunin exams when I saved her from a bear."

"Oh really?" Hiruzen said while keeping his eyes looking straight at the young girl, "why don't you tell me all about it then? I always love a good story."

Naruto and Karin started talking about how he met Karin and everything else that happened until they arrived at her being kicked from her village and ending up at his door. "So you see, she needs a place to stay and I was wondering if she could become a Konoha-ninja now that she doesn't have a village anymore."

The Third looked at the girl but couldn't find any hint of deceit in her body language. When he was convinced she wasn't a spy but really a girl down on her luck he gave her a grandfatherly smile to put her at ease. "So Karin, you want to join Konoha? I appreciate that you like to become a member of the Leaf but I'm afraid that is not as easy as Naruto made it look."

"But Jugo and Haku could join without problem. So why can't she?" Naruto asked.

"Jugo and Haku are both members of a strong bloodline-clan. The council granted them an exception because of it. And Mangetsu is a Hozuki and related to the second Mizukage so he got a similar deal."

"So there is nothing you can do for Karin at all? She can't stay in Konoha?" Naruto asked crestfallen.

"I didn't say that." the Third replied calmly, "I said I couldn't allow her a free pass, just like that. There is of course still the standard procedure that she can apply for."

"I'll do it!" Karin said with a sudden determination she didn't show before, "I'll show you that I am just as good as any noble clan or bloodline user."

"Very well then. In order to join there are three criteria you need to meet: One, you need to be sponsored by an existing ninja of Konoha."

Naruto was about to raise his hand to declare his sponsorship when the Hokage quickly added "... of Chunin-rank or higher."

Naruto didn't give up his plans so easily however and boldly answered "Fine, when I become a Chunin after these exams I'll sponsor her then."

The Hokage smiled at his determination and continued "Two: you need to pass a test of skill where you demonstrate you are a valuable asset to the village. From the story you and Naruto told me I'm afraid your current skill-set isn't on par yet if you needed to be saved from a bear. Remember that being a medic alone won't cut it. We also expect a certain standard in combat-proficiency."

Karin frowned at hearing this requirement but nodded nonetheless. She was always better at support-roles and she knew that getting her taijutsu and ninjutsu up to speed would be quite some work, yet she refused to give up so easily.

"And finally: you must show support and dedication to the village by performing a task of loyalty."

"A task of loyalty?" Naruto asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"It's a safety precaution we take every time a ninja who previously belonged to a different village wants to join. It's to make sure they aren't sleeper agents sent by their Kage."

"But Karin isn't a sleeper agent! You can't really believe that, do you?"

"It doesn't matter what I believe. The rules are there for a good reason and I can't just waver them whenever I feel like. Mangetsu was given the same test which he performed by aiding us in stopping Mizuki."

"So what test do you have in mind for Karin then?"

The old Hokage closed his eyes as if he were in deep concentration, though he actually already had a perfect 'test' in mind. "I came to a decision." he suddenly said grabbing the attention of the young teens "As a token of goodwill and loyalty Karin must ensure that Konoha performs well in the upcoming Chunin finals. She will perform this task by training alongside you and aiding you wherever possible. Then after the finals are over and if you are promoted she will be tested herself. If the new skills she displays are adequate enough she will be given a position in Konoha as a Genin."

Karin was shocked at the very generous offer she was given while Naruto grinned at the Hokage who simply returned a small smile. "Now if that is everything you two are excused. I'm sure you have some training to do this next month."

With that Naruto dragged the still shocked Karin out of the office and towards the training fields where he was supposed to meet the rest of his team that morning to tell them the news.

* * *

27 days until the exam:

"Yes I did it!" Naruto exclaimed as he took a leaf and split it in two in a fraction of a second. "So what's step two of the training?"

Jiraiya looked up from where he was working with Karin and her Shadow Clones, something she surprisingly had no trouble with, on her taijutsu and came over. "The next step is power." he said while picking up a pebble and throwing it at his godson "Now try and cut through rock with your wind-chakra until you can cut it just as fast as a leaf."

26 days until the Finals:

"Eight Trigrams: Double Kick." Hinata yelled as she practised the Gentle Fist with kicks for the first time. After working on all the theoretical aspects she and Gai had finally found a reliable way to shut down tenketsu with your feet and were now working on a Gentle Fist - style that used both punches and kicks, which had promising effects so far.

"Not bad, but you still leave your guard open when you do that move. You have to crouch down before you sweep your legs to minimize your own weak points. It should go like this." Gai said as he demonstrated the technique he had devised. Hinata could see how his style kept his own side protected as well as dealing damage at the same time and tried to emulate his movements.

"Much better! Now immediately weave into the next kata and deliver a chop with the side of your hands. Remember that these two attacks have to become one fluid movement."

* * *

24 days until the exam:

"Lightning style: Chidori!" Sasuke yelled as he struck his hand that was covered in electricity straight through the wooden dummy leaving a nice clean hole in its chest area.

"Very good, Sasuke." Kakashi commented upon inspecting the damage done to the dummy. "Remember that the Chidori is all about piercing through any type of defence and getting a lethal blow at a vital area. As you can see on the dummy it has a very small point of impact so don't try to use it when you are outnumbered since it won't work on more than one opponent at a time."

Sasuke nodded as he was still breathing heavy and trying to regain his energy. "This move sure takes quite a lot of energy." he commented

"That it does," Kakashi agreed "at your current level I'd say you can only do it three times before you run out of energy. So you have to be careful about this move and not use it until you are sure it can end the battle since if you miss or if the opponent still stands you will be too worn out to properly defend yourself."

"So what do I do to prevent that from happening?" he asked.

"We still have three weeks left so we are going to make sure you have some other moves to use as well. I heard that you picked up a Bo-staff from your mission in Uzu? Can I see it?"

Sasuke went to the side where he had left his gear and picked up the black staff he received from Naruto when they found it in Gato's vault.

Kakashi inspected the weapon and looked impressed "This is quite a work of art. Have you tried wielding it yet?"

"No, not yet." Sasuke admitted.

"Well it's about time to change that, is it?" Kakashi said while handing him the weapon back and picking up a Bo-staff himself, "let's start with the basic stance. Use your Sharingan to see what I do and then repeat the moves until you can do them in your sleep."

* * *

21 days until the finals:

"I think I got it!" Naruto said as his latest batch of clones had dispelled and returned the memories back to him. He picked up two big rocks in each hand a second later they crumbled to the round in dozens of perfect cuts.

"That's good," Jiraiya said looking up from his work, "The next step is about control rather than power." He placed a burning candle about 5 meters in front of Naruto "You have to use pure wind manipulation to blow out the candle from that distance. Once you mange it you move it back further and further. The goal of his step is being able to blow out a candle from a distance of 50 meters."

As Naruto created usual horde of clones to help him with the task Jiraiya went over to Karin who had started her training in fire manipulation from the scrolls. As she had no previous experience with manipulating her element she was still stuck on the first step of trying to burn a leaf with her chakra. Still since she also used Shadow Clones with a similar ease as Naruto, something that Jiraiya had proposed as he had a hunch she would be good at it, she made some rather spectacular progress. He expected her to finish step 1 in a week or so which wasn't so bad considering most people took months to reach that level. Then again most people didn't train with 50 Shadow clones at all times.

* * *

18 days until the finals:

Sasuke was becoming more familiar with his Bo staff as he went through the Katas he was studying. He looked at his new sensei after Kakashi was finally forced to return to work and overlook the security for the exams. He seemed quite on edge ever since that toad appeared with some message for him and he had left almost immediately to 'get more patrols out'.

So as Sasuke was suddenly left without a sensei he was approached by the Hokage himself who came to see Kakashi with the same scroll in his hands. When being asked where the ANBU-commander was Sasuke explained that a toad appeared and that Kakashi had already left to his office. The old man only nodded and turned around to go see Kakashi but right before leaving he seemed to remember Sasuke was without a teacher now and turned around to ask him about his plans. He was pleasantly surprised when Sasuke showed him he was working on fighting with a Bo Staff and offered to appoint a new sensei who was an expert in the weapon.

After dealing with both Gai and Kakashi Sasuke should have been used to eccentric senseis yet he could honestly say that this one was the weirdest yet: at least his other teachers were human.

"Stay focussed!" Enma yelled as he saw Sasuke lost in memory during their spar and rewarded him with a blow to the head. "You can space out on your own time! In a combat situation you must always be alert to your surroundings. Now stand up and do Katas four through twelve again and without mistakes this time!"

Sasuke grunted and picked up his weapon to go through the Katas of the Monkey Style Enma was teaching him on Sarutobi's orders.

* * *

15 days until the finals:

"Here you go, Hinata-chan." Naruto said as he placed the finishing touches on a seal she wanted in the palm of her hand. "By channelling your chakra into the seal you can quickly seal and unseal the bow directly in your hand. The response time should be minimal with barely a few milliseconds and I also managed to get rid of the smoke that usually accompanies a summoning since it would only hinder your sight in a crucial moment. So go ahead and test it out: Karin and I spent nearly the entire night working on it."

Hinata focussed on the seal and suddenly she was carrying her trusty white bow in her hands as if it materialised out of thin air. She was startled at the sudden appearance of the weapon and almost dropped it in surprise. She focussed again and just as suddenly at is appeared it was gone again. She smiled an tried gain. This time she was prepared for the weapon and as soon as it unsealed she channelled her chakra in it and fired several arrows at a target. Before the arrows had even landed in the centre of the board she was aiming for she had already sealed it again. The entire exchange taking place in less than a second. She grinned at the sight of the destroyed dummy and hugged Naruto "Thank you Naruto, this seal is exactly what I needed."

"Oh, it was nothing. I always like a good challenge with seals." Naruto humbly said.

* * *

12 days until the finals:

Karin had finished the first step of fire-manipulation and was now studying a technique to add to her arsenal. She was working on one of the scrolls with basic fire-techniques Sasuke had given her: the "Fire Style: Fireball". It was a C-class technique that allowed the user to breath out a condensed ball of flames from their mouth. While still powerful it was also a good move for beginners since it required very little chakra and could be done with a single tiger-seal. Sasuke explained that the move would become stronger as her own experience with fire improved and demonstrated this by showing his own "Fire Style: Grand Fireball" that spewed a massive stream of flames from his mouth that completely dwarfed anything Karin had produced so far.

Determined not to let the Uchiha win Karin created 50 clones and got them to go over the technique over and over again. In between helping Naruto, which mostly consisted of waking him up every morning and preparing breakfast as they still lived together, she had been training all month herself as well. Her taijutsu had already taken major improvements from before (though truth be told that wasn't exactly a challenge) and now they were working on her ninjutsu as well. She was determined that by the end of the month she could prove to the Hokage that she was worthy of joining Konoha.

* * *

9 days until the finals:

Naruto focussed on the five burning candles fifty metres away and directed the wind forward. The one in the middle went out while the other four remained undisturbed. "Yes! I finally did it!" he cried out in happiness while Karin congratulated him.

"Good job kid, that concludes the first set of wind-manipulation techniques." Jiraiya complimented "Let's see the difference: try and make a windblade again."

Naruto nodded and tried to make a windblade for the first time since he started training. Last month his windblade took the form a short dagger and keeping it up drained his energy considerably so he opted for short bursts instead. Now he found that shaping the energy into a fullsized blade took almost no effort and he could wield it without putting any real strain on his chakra at all.

"This is amazing, my control over wind has improved tremendously. And to think this is only the first set of five. Can we do the second set now?"

"I'm afraid now would not be a good time." Jiraiya said, "The finals are next week and completing the second set would take at least two months. It is better if we focus this last week on some more practical skills."

Naruto nodded at his godfathers wisdom and began training to implement his new control over wind into his existing moves instead.

* * *

5 days until the final:

"Eight trigrams: Assault combo" Hinata said as she finalized her own variant of the "64 palms". After getting familiar with using her feet to use the Gentle Fist, which they had renamed "Gentle Style" as she no longer exclusively used fists, she had developed a variant of the move that used both kicks and punches to maximize the damage and unpredictability of the technique. She ended the move with unsealing her bow and firing several shots at Gai who had volunteered to take every hit to see its effectiveness.

They had discovered that the Chakra-arrows could be manipulated to be more blunt than sharp, which allowed her to use the bow for non-lethal purposes as well. She was now able to fire an arrow in the middle of combos as soon as her opponent left any form of distance between them, which made her a deadly foe at any range.

"Very Good Hinata!" Gai said after he took the hit and gave her a thumbs up, "That attack is definitely good enough to make the Hyuga reconsider their old stance. Your father and the elders will have no choice but to be very impressed with it."

* * *

2 days until the finals:

"Strike, strike, sweep... and uppercut!" Enma yelled the instructions as he oversaw Sasuke go through the motions of the final kata they had been working on. "Very good Uchiha. Your control over the staff is at least tolerable for now. I suggest you take it easy for now and rest up. We wouldn't want you tired for the big day now would we?"

Sasuke nodded and saluted the primate as it poofed away and went back to the realm of summons. He had to admit that Enma sure knew how to handle a staff, not so surprising considering he could literally turn himself into one. He had learnt more these last two weeks than he ever thought there could be to learn about the weapon and he still felt like a novice. One thing was certain though: he was ready for the fight. Team nine was going down.

* * *

The day of the Finals:

On the day of the finals Konoha was filled with all kinds of tourists who had come from far and wide to see the events and decide which village would get their funds for the next six months. Besides several lords and rich merchants the big guest of honour was the Kazekage who had come to see his children fight in the tournament and judge the participants. The leader of Taki was also present but he wasn't allowed in the Kage booth and had to take peace with sitting amongst the nobles and other judges.

Right now all the contestants and their senseis were sitting in the waiting room of the Arena until they were ready to begin. Exactly at noon Yamato appeared and took them to the arena itself where they were greeted by a loud and thunderous applause from the audience who had come to watch the first team-based fights in Chunin history.

They all stood in line and looked in awe at the masses that came to see them. "Look sharp kids!" Yamato told them, "Today is your big day after all. Better give them a good show. And remember: if you must lose, then do it with style. You can still get promoted even if you don't win."

While the crowd was still cheering at the contestants the Hokage appeared on top of the Kage Booth and addressed the crowd with the help of a voice-enhancing jutsu: "Lords and ladies, I welcome you all to Konoha for the 25th summer Chunin finals. It is my pleasure to invite you to our village and I hope that we can all enjoy the spectacle these finals are sure to bring. Now without prolonging any further we can begin with the opening match."

"That's our cue." Yamato said to the Genin, "team nine and team seven stay here, the rest goes back to the waiting area."

As everyone but the two teams had left Yamato approached them "As you know we will decide by coin toss whether it will be team-combat or individual fights. Miss Hinata since you are the youngest present, please pick your choice: heads or tails?"

"Heads." She said while looking Neji straight in the eye.

Yamato flipped the coin and both teams followed it intently as it flew through the air wondering how the fight would go.


	16. The finals - 1

**Note: I do not own naruto  
**

**16) The finals – part 1**

previously:

_As everyone but the two teams had left Yamato approached them "As you know we will decide by coin toss whether it will be team-combat or individual fights. Miss Hinata since you are the youngest present, please pick your choice: heads or tails?"_

"_Heads." She said while looking Neji straight in the eye._

_Yamato flipped the coin and both teams followed it intently as it flew through the air wondering how the fight would go._

* * *

The coin spinned in the air before landing heads up on the floor. "heads it is." Yamato announced for the people in the stadium "Will you fight as a team or individually?"

Team seven huddled together for a second to devise their strategy before Hinata announced they would fight individually this round.

"The first round will feature individual fights. A team is disqualified if all three of its members are knocked out or surrendered. You are allowed to switch out members in between fights. Will the fighters for the first match stay here while the rest goes back to the designated area?"

Everyone nodded and all but Tenten and Naruto left the arena-floor.

"So, Tenten are you ready? Let's have a good match all right?" Naruto said.

"Sure, but don't think that means I'll take it easy on you."

"Wouldn't want it any other way."

"Are both contestants ready?" Yamato asked as both Naruto and Tenten nodded "Begin!"

Tenten immediately jumped back and quickly threw several handfuls of kunai and shuriken straight at Naruto with perfect aim 'let's put him on the defensive. He can't block that many at once so he'll have to dodge them and once he starts running it's just a matter of time before he makes a mistake and then this match is mine.'

But to her surprise Naruto neither blocked nor dodged the kunai, instead it seemed as though they all missed at the last moment and veered off course.

"Tenten missed? Impossible!" Lee shouted from the bench as he saw all projectiles land harmlessly on the ground around Naruto, not a single one touching him.

Tenten frowned but decided that it must have been a fluke 'maybe I'm more nervous than I thought. Let's try it again!'

To everyone's surprise she picked up a sealing scroll and wiped her blood on it as she drew weapon after from it and threw it straight at Naruto at rapid speeds. Yet once again all weapons moved off course and not a single one hit Naruto who hadn't moved at all since the battle started besides waving his arms and looked sort of bored. "I'm sorry it must be this way Tenten, but you had the worst possible opponent when you picked me. Your weapons don't stand a chance." he announced.

* * *

Back in the waiting area Temari realised what happened and started laughing "I get it! The kid's a wind type like me. He has this match already in the bag. There's no way throwing weapons will work on someone like us."

Sakura who happened to be nearby let her curiosity get the better of her and asked for more info "You know how he does it? He must be doing something to make all those weapons miss but I can't figure out what."

"It's simple, really." Temari explained, "for a wind user it is extremely easy to just generate a strong gust that blows all the weapons away. It doesn't matter how many there are and how well they are aimed, she might as well be throwing them in the middle of a heavy storm so her aim is completely useless in this match. If anything that boy is being too gentle with her, if she was my opponent I'd just end this match right away without too much hassle."

"It looks like Naruto is about to do just that." Shino commented.

And indeed after waiting to see if she would do something else Naruto decided to end this match and went straight for Tenten. The girl tried to defend herself with some basic moves but Naruto's taijutsu was extremely well honed after being Gai's student for almost two year and quickly overpowered her until she was forced to surrender.

* * *

"round 1 goes to team seven." Yamato announced, "Will the next two challengers please enter the ring."

After Tenten returned to their bow lee was the next one to come out. Meanwhile Naruto decided to rest up a bit while Sasuke took over the second fight.

* * *

Meanwhile in the Kage booth both Kages were given their commentary on the fights.

"That was a boring start." The Kazekage commented, "The girl was pretty much outmatched and there hardly was a fight at all. Let's hope the next one will be more exciting. The last Uchiha will give quite a show I am sure."

"Do not underestimate his opponent so easily, lord Kazekage." The Hokage said, "According to his sensei Lee is a true prodigy with the sword, comparable to a Samurai Lieutenant. He will not give in as easily as his teammate did."

"As good as a Samurai? At his age? That is quite something indeed."

* * *

"The second round is Rock Lee vs Sasuke Uchiha. Begin."

Lee immediately sprung to action and was running at Sasuke with his sword already drawn. The Uchiha didn't expect to be put on the defence so fast and had no time for any of his regular jutsus so he was forced to rely on his Bo staff instead. Right before he reached Sasuke Lee suddenly jumped high in the sky and waved his sword around as three copies of him seemingly dropped down at high speeds "Sword style: Crescent Moon".

The audience gasped as Sasuke held his Staff before him and stopped one of the three attackers while the other two faded out instead of hitting him. 'He knew the real one? But how? Nobody can see which is the real me when I attack like that' Lee was shocked at the bold display and couldn't help but ask "How did you figure it out only one was real?"

Sasuke looked up with red pattern of the Sharingan visible in his eyes and smiled "It a was a good try but no illusion can fool the Sharingan."

Lee understood that trickery wouldn't work in this fight but was secure in his victory nonetheless "Your eyes are really impressive, but just because you can see my moves doesn't mean you are fast enough to do something about them."

Sasuke was well aware of that particular flaw of his bloodline but showed no sign of nervousness whatsoever. Instead he decided that he should be the one that put the pressure on lee this time as he attacked the swordsman with a sweep of his staff followed by the rest of the combo that made up Katas seven through eight. As he striked, slashed, sweeped and swung his staff in all angles the swordsman had no choice but to slowly be pushed back trying to dodge and block as good as he could.

Suddenly Lee tripped over a rock and fell backwards landing on his ass. Sasuke saw the opening and immediately went for the knock-out. He was surprised when his staff hit nothing but dirt on the now empty spot where lee used to be and he realized too late it was a trap as he felt lee's kick in the side of his face and he was thrown away from the force.

He landed quite hard on the side but immediately recovered and stood up on reflex as not to leave himself defenceless. He was glad the old Monkey-king had drilled that particular tactic in his head even though it hurt like hell at the time. With his Sharingan still active he could see in slow-motion as Lee rushed forward and went for another blow while he was supposed to still be disoriented. He willed his body to dodge but his muscles were unresponsive. Realizing he couldn't block or dodge the attack either way he went for the next best thing and lifted his staff to catch Lee right in the stomach at the same time his fist connected with his face.

Everyone watched as both fighters fell back at the same time and neither one stood up.

"Double knock-out." Yamato announced as medics came to pick them up "both Sasuke and Lee are out. Will the next contestants come up for their match please?"

With both his teammates out Neji was the only one left and came forward. He was surprised when instead of Naruto it was his cousin Hinata that stepped out of their box. "I see you at least have the courage to face me yourself. It is commendable but you will lose nonetheless. Fate has decreed that I am to be victorious today."

rather than flinching away Hinata returned his gaze "no cousin, you are wrong. Fate does not decide everything and I will prove it to by beating you here."

In response Neji activated his Byakugan and took the standard Gentle Fist stance. Hinata activated her own bloodline as well and took a similar yet somehow different stance opposite to him, something that didn't escape the Hyugas watching from the audience.

* * *

"Hiashi, what is you daughter doing?" one of the elders asked, "That stance is not one of the Gentle Fist."

"I don't know." Hiashi said calmly, "I do wonder what she hopes to achieve with such a low stance. But I trust that she and Gai now what they are doing."

"Go kick his ass, sis!" Hanabi meanwhile shouted to support her big sister and idol.

* * *

Neji and Hinata were still staring each other down, neither saying a word. Yamato took that as a hint they were both ready and started the match.

As soon as the match started Hinata leaped back and unsealed her bow. With her Byakugan already activated aiming took less than a fraction of a second and she let loose several shots at Neji hoping to catch him off guard and defeat him before he came closer. Neji was a little surprised initially to see her use a bow but his training with Tenten gave him plenty of experience with ranged weapons and how to counter them. "Eight Trigrams: Rotation!" he said as he spun around in a giant dome of chakra that deflected all of Hinata's projectiles. After stopping her attack he wasted no time and jumped forward immediately to get up close.

Neji rushed in and thrust his fingers forwards as he approached. Even without her Byakugan Hinata could easily see that his fingers were loaded with chakra and that the seemingly innocent jab attack was in actuality every bit as deadly as if he had used a knife instead, if not more so. Without doubting for a second she sealed her bow again and raised her own hand to deflect his move while trying to land her palm on his chest to shut down his core for a quick victory. She wasn't really surprised that he evaded her attack, after all she never expected Neji to go down that easily.

The back and forth of attacks, dodges, blocks and the occasional hit went on for about a minute. They both had upped their speed considerably but so far neither of them was giving the other any room to truly take control of the fight.

'Hinata has improved a lot since last time we fought.' Neji thought, 'But I'm still better than her, it's just a matter of time until I break though her defence.' he smirked when he made another hit and closed another tenketsu. 'Just a matter of time.'

Up in the stands the audience was getting restless at seeing this seemingly boring fight. They didn't realize that any one of those hits had so much chakra behind it that it could kill a normal person and only saw two people using boring jabs that didn't look all that powerful or impressive. The shinobi, especially those of the Hyuga clan, however were well aware what was really happening down there and watched the match with their breaths held. 'Come on Hinata, you are losing like this. Show me what you worked on this last month.' Hiashi thought.

Hinata meanwhile figured the timing was right to pull a few rabbits out of her hat and suddenly she bended her knees backwards and dropped down on the ground. As she was falling she placed one hand on the ground behind her to catch herself and pirouetted her entire body around while swinging her legs at Neji's side. Neji was completely caught off guard by this move and was too slow to dodge or evade her kick. He tried blocking it but was shocked when he felt the typical burns of tenketsu being closed at the place she kicked him. 'Did she just used Gentle Fist with her feet?'

Meanwhile Hinata pushed off and made a backflip to land on her feet again before resuming her own stance.

Neji decided that he needed to pull out all the stops if he wanted to win this, so he focused his chakra to his eyes to prepare for his greatest technique "You are within reach of my divination. Eight Trigrams: 64 palms!" He rushed forth at Hinata at incredible speeds to strike at her with the deadly speed and precision the '64 Palms'-technique is known for. Months of training in it ensured he could do it blindfolded if he so wished.

Hinata decided to test her own version against the original technique and called out her defence "Eight Trigrams: Assault Combo!"

The two fighters met each other head on and started their mutual assault on the other. Initially Neji seemed to have the upper hand but when Hinata started using more kicks in her attack, something he never learned to defend against in a Gentle Fist match, Neji soon found himself getting hit a lot until Hinata finished her assault with an especially heavy kick straight in his stomach that made him cave in and fall back several metres. While he was recovering his Byakugan had shut down and as such he never saw the blunt arrow coming that knocked him out with a clean shot at his head.

Everyone in the audience started applauding at Hinata's victory when Neji keeled over and stayed down. She was smiling at the applause when she was suddenly lifted in the air by Naruto and Sasuke who had joined her on the field to congratulate her and celebrate their first victory.

As team seven bowed down for the applause Yamato announced their victory "The winners of the first match is team seven! The next round will begin shortly. Will team Anko and team Taki please step forward for the second match."

Team seven left the arena to go to the other contestants in the waiting area while Jugo, Haku, Mangetsu, Fu, Krios and Heero stepped down into the ring.

* * *

In the audience:

"Hiashi what was that?" one of the other Hyugas asked. "Such a fighting style is unheard of for a Hyuga! That wasn't the Gentle Fist she used!"

"I'm not sure what exactly she did. But it seemed to have worked if she managed to defeat Neji. After this tournament I shall get to the bottom of this."

As the other Hyuga nodded in approval Hiashi had his own thoughts however 'you looked great Hinata. I'm proud of you. Now go and win this tournament.'

* * *

Meanwhile Yamato started the second set of matches with the mandatory coin-toss. After Heero called tails but lost Mangetsu declared it would be full-on team battle this time.

"Very well then," Yamato announced, "The second round will be a team battle. Ready? Begin!"

Mangetsu immediately went through several handsigns to start the Hidden Mist Jutsu. As the thick mist spread out over the battlefield the Genin from Taki came together and stood back to back in a triangle formation. "I can't see a thing in this fog! Any ideas, pretty boy?" Krios asked.

"Shut up Scarface! I'm thinking." Heero answered, "Why don't you use one of those fancy masks of yours to unleash a windblast?"

"I don't have a heart with wind-chakra yet." Krios admitted, "You don't find that element in just any random bandit and the elders forbade me from taking it from dead shinobi. As if they still need it..."

"Guys, I sense something at three o'clock! Scatter now!" Fu yelled.

The three of them jumped away immediately just as a partially transformed Jugo slammed down on the spot they just stood at.

"Damn, that guy is huge! Ideas anyone?"

"I'll take him, you guys get the other two." Fu said

"Dibs on the girl!" Krios said with a grin while jumping through the mist at Haku's position.

"Should we tell him?" Heero asked Fu while running towards a surprised Mangetsu.

"Nah, let the bastard figure it out himself! I want to see the look on his face when he realises it."

"That's just mean." he said while throwing a punch at Mangetsu's face as the swordsman ducked at the last moment.

Mangetsu was forced to drop his technique to stop Heero's assault and defend himself. "How did you guys find our position in the mist so fast?"

"We are trained to fight in the dark." he simply responded, "Finding an opponent on sounds alone isn't that hard if you know what to look for."

"Well, it looks like my 'Silent Killing'-technique could use more work then." Mangetsu responded dryly while countering Heero's punch with his own. "though don't think you have beaten us that easily. We aren't a one-trick pony." He said while unsheathing his Thunderswords to press the attack.

Heero lost his cool exterior for a second when he recognized the weapons but recovered himself quite fast "Nice swords, are those what I think they are?"

"Oh yeah. These are the genuine article all right." Mangetsu responded as he let the electricity flow freely over the blades of his dual weapons.

Heero didn't respond but pulled out a katana himself to defend against one of the legendary blades of the Hidden Mist. 'Shit, a genuine swordsmen of the Mist. What the fuck is he doing in Konoha of all places? There's no time for games now. I have to take this guy seriously or I'm dead.' With that he channelled electricity of his own into the blade to counter the Thunderswords' effect and moved in for the second round of their fight.

Meanwhile Krios was fighting Haku who about had it with all the remarks at his gender. He didn't really look like a woman that much did he?

"So baby, what do you say you and me are going to get some coffee after these exams are over huh?" Krios said while dodging a barrage of ice shards Haku had launched at him.

"Is that a no? Why, already got a boyfriend? Forget him, a pretty girl like you deserves to be with a real man." he said as one of the masks in his chest opened up and spewed a stream of concentrated fire at the ice-user.

Haku held his left hand in the ram sign and a thick sheet of ice appeared before him that acted as a shield and withstood the fire without problems.

"Damn, I'd hoped that fire would have been able to melt that ice of yours but it looks like I get no such luck huh? Doesn't matter, I'll get through your ice eventually. Just like I'll get you to go out with me. All the girls fall for my charms eventually."

A vein started throbbing on Haku's face after that remark and he reacted by launching a second set of ice shards at Krios. He smiled when he couldn't dodge all of them and took some nasty hits. 'Man, that guy is annoying! Not even Naruto makes that many jokes about my looks.'

"Is he for real?" Jugo asked Fu while they were duking it out.

"I'm afraid so." Fu answered while blocking one of Jugo's mighty punches with her forearms before returning it a punch that was a lot stronger than you would expect from such a small girl.

"Really? I know Haku looks rather feminine but he should have realized it by now at least. He can't be that naïve can he?" Jugo said as he started transforming his arms to even the playing field against Fu's attacks.

"I'm afraid he is. At least about girls. His looks don't exactly make him popular back home." Fu remarked while flipping backwards to avoid Jugo's new series of attacks.

"Hey I resent that! I'm plenty popular back home! I just chose to be a man of morals." Krios shouted back while trying to outrun a giant ice dragon jutsu that was chasing him while the mask in his back keep on spouting fireballs. "Don't believe her baby, she's just jealous of our chemistry."

'How did he hear that but missed the part about me being a guy? Is he just playing with me or what?' Haku thought in anger. "Shut the hell up and freeze to death already!"

Right as the dragon was moving in on him he sprouted two sets of threads from his back that pulled him away to safety. "She's just playing hard to get." he set to the astonishment of the entire stadium.

* * *

"And I thought you were bad when it came to girls." Sasuke said to Naruto up in the stands.

"Yeah, that guy is hopeless... Wait a minute, what do you mean I am bad with girls? I'm not bad with girls right Hinata-chan?"

"You could be worse." Hinata shrugged.

"Not you too!" Naruto said while hanging his shoulders in defeat.

"Ah, cheer up, we're just messing with you." Sasuke said to his friend.

* * *

Meanwhile Mangetsu and Heero were still locked in their swordfight as the electricity freely sparked between their weapons on every hit. While it seemed like a stalemate both knew it was only a matter if time until Heero would run out of chakra while Mangetsu had the advantage that his Thunderswords supplied the lightning automatically without him needing to channel nearly as much into it.

'I'm losing like this!' Heero thought, 'I need a plan and fast or else I'll run out of juice and then this fight is over. There has to be a weakness to these swords I can abuse, but what is it?'

Unfortunately for him he had run out of time and he watched in horror as his katana was no longer sparking with electricity. Mangetsu wasted no time and immediately crossed blades again. Without his own electricity to counter the Thunderswords he was helpless as the high voltage coursed through his body and he was forced to drop his sword.

Mangetsu placed one of his blades at his neck and he was forced to surrender.

"Heero is out!" Yamato announced "Team Taki is reduced to two members."

Realizing that they were outnumbered now Fu and Krios decided simultaneously to go all out and finish their opponent before Mangetsu could get behind them and simply take them out one by one.

Fu focussed on the link between herself and her tailed beast the seven-tailed beetle Chomei. "Chomei, I need your help now."

Immediately her body became shrouded in a red cloak with 3 tails behind her while a deep voice echoed in her head **"You got it sugar! Let's show them the power of lucky number seven!"**

With her new enhanced abilities she took off like a rocket and slammed Jugo straight in his gut where she felt some of his ribs break. The gentle giant was thrown against the far wall from the impact and lost consciousness immediately. His jacket was ripped open at his chest and there was a nasty spot where the punch landed. He was immediately taken away by medics to get first aid.

"Jugo is out as well." Yamato announced.

Krios meanwhile had taken of his upper jacket as well to show his deformed body with three masks in his chest that seemed to look around as if they had a life of their own. "Sorry babe, but it's time for my finishing move."

Each of the masks opened its mouth and gathered a different colour of chakra while he himself did the same. "Fire, Water, Earth, Thunder: Partial Elemental barrage!" The four different elements spouted forth at the same time and mixed with each other to become one twirling mass that then blasted forwards towards Haku.

The ice user tried to defend himself by forming a thick ice-dome around himself but to his horror the technique went straight through it and hit him head on. When the dust settled Haku lay motionless on the ground. Everyone gasped and looked shocked to see his seemingly lifeless body.

Yamato appeared next to him and performed a small jutsu on his forehead before releasing his breath in relief. "Don't worry, he is fine. Haku is merely knocked out."

Mangetsu realized he couldn't win and surrendered to go check up on Haku and Jugo.

As Heero and Fu were celebrating their victory Krios was staring silently in front of him. Fu noticed it and nudged him in the ribs. "Hey, Scarface. Why are you so down? We won remember?"

Krios looked at her with anime tears running down his face "I can't believe I just asked out a guy in front of everyone! Now they will think I'm gay!"

* * *

A/N: that was the first two fights, next up is team eight vs team ten and then Gaara's team vs Kabuto's team. After that the second round will start

Anyway please R&R


	17. The finals - 2

**Note: I do not own Naruto.  
**

**17) The finals – part 2**

As team Taki went back to the waiting area for the other participants their match was wildly discussed by the various judges and jurors.

"Did you feel that chakra? And those tails? That girls is a jinchuriki, no doubt about it."

"How dare they sent someone like that to the exams? This is outrageous!"

"And that boy was using the Earth Grudge! Has Taki lost its mind?"

"How did Konoha get one of the seven swords in its possession?"

"I heard Haku was trained by Zabuza Momochi himself!"

"An Ice-user, I didn't know members of that clan survived Kiri's purge."

* * *

As the various nobles and other judges were giving their opinion the Hokage and Kazekage were also discussing the last match.

"This was quite the show, I must say." the Kazekage remarked, "I was almost sure your team would have won when Mangetsu defeated his opponent. To think that girl was a jinchuriki the entire time."

"Not all jinchuriki are crazy, you know. Most just try to fit in and rely on their own strength as much as possible."

"Ridiculous! jinchuriki are weapons, nothing more. My son Gaara understands that and won't waste time playing around."

"We shall see, lord Kazekage. But first it is time for the next match. This one has quite a few heirs of our biggest clans. It should be a good show."

* * *

In the arena the rookies of team eight and ten stood against each other wile Yamato approached them for the mandatory coin-toss.

"Who do you think will win?" Hinata asked Naruto.

"That all depends on this coin toss," Naruto explained, "the winner will get a huge advantage over the other team. I believe team ten will choose team-combat while team eight will go for individual matches."

This was a common thought amongst anyone who knew both teams so few were surprised when Shino won and picked individual matches almost immediately without conversing with his team.

Yamato nodded and announced the first fight with the help of a voice-enhancing technique "The first fight of the third match will begin shortly. Representing team Kurenai we have Kiba Inuzuka and his canine partner Akamaru and for team Asuma we have Choji Akimichi."

The two fighters stood against each other as Yamato started the fight.

Kiba being the ever impatient one immediately rushed forward to try and end the fight quickly. However he regretted it dearly when Choji hit him square in the face with an enlarged fist. "Partial Expansion Jutsu!" The Akimichi yelled as he tried to continue his attacks with his other fist as well.

Unfortunately for him Kiba was a lot faster and easily dodged the next attack by jumping backwards. He rubbed his bleeding nose and cursed at himself for acting so rashly "I forgot he could do that. I better not underestimate him again." he mumbled.

Instead he called his partner Akamaru over to try and overwhelm him by attacking from two sides at once. "let's show him how we Inuzuka fight. Attack Delta formation."

The duo sprinted forward again but this time they were much more focused and Choji couldn't stop both at once. Every time he tried to block one of them the other rushed in to take advantage of his lowered defense. After enduring a rather nasty bite from Akamaru in his left leg however he got tired of being the punching bag and went for his next attack. "Expansion Jutsu!" he yelled as his stomach ballooned up until he looked like a giant ball with his still undersized head and limbs comically attached.

He then withdrew his limbs like a turtle crawling in his shell and his body started spinning around rapidly. "Human Bullet Tank!" He yelled while rushing forward towards Kiba's location who would certainly be flatted if the technique hit him.

But while his technique generated enormous speeds it had the disadvantage that he was hardly capable of changing his trajectory and could only attack in straight lines before needing to stop and reposition himself. This lack of agility was one weakness that Kiba could easily exploit so after jumping away from the massive bullet tank he and Akamaru prepared their next technique "Inuzuka Style: Man Beast Clone!" he shouted as he and Akamaru both transformed. Kiba became more feral than he already looked before. His claws elongated and his canines grew to make him look like a wild animal. Akamaru meanwhile looked like an exact clone of Kiba at the moment as both ninja and dog prepared for one of their combination attacks.

Meanwhile Choji had turned around and was once again barreling straight at the duo. Kiba looked unimpressed however and decide to attack straight on. Had he been thinking clearly he would realize how stupid that idea was and under normal circumstances he would have attacked from the side instead. But when an Inuzuka is using the Man Beast Clone he also adopts a more feral mindset where backing away from a challenge is seen as weakness rather than elementary strategy. Therefore he didn't hesitate to meet Choji's technique head on "Let's go Akamaru: Fang over Fang!" he said as both of them started spinning around wildly until they looked like two twisters that then started spinning around each other as well.

Choji's "Bullet Tank" and Kiba's "Fang Over Fang" met each other head on and tried to overpower the other. Eventually though it was Choji who ended up winning and he barreled Kiba's technique out of the way but not before taking some heavy hits himself.

As Kiba laid knocked out on the ground with Akamaru standing over him protectively Yamato announced Choji as the winner of the first fight.

* * *

In the Kage Booth:

"That was quite stupid of the Inuzuka to attack him head on." The Kazekage said, "He should have relied on his better agility and worn him out."

"I agree," the Hokage said, "His hotheadedness will only jeopardize the fellow members of his team like that. I'm afraid he's not ready to be a Chunin yet."

"And what about the Akimichi? Sure he won, but that was only because his opponent practically gave him the victory. His attacks aren't that spectacular and can be easily dodged or overcome."

"Let's not write him off too fast. He is still in the fight and might surprise us yet."

"Maybe. Anyway it looks like the next fight is about to start."

* * *

Back in the Arena Shino had walked out to replace Kiba while Choji had decided to stay and fight again. He knew that two victories in a row would be hard to get but he needed to wear Shino out before Shikamaru took over. His friends relied on him and he would not let them down.

Shino on the other hand was annoyed that they had started the match with a loss. He had hoped that Kiba could have won the first fight so he could focus solely on Shikamaru. Instead his brash teammate had ignored common strategy and lost his fight due to his own fault. Which meant that he and Sakura were now outnumbered. He ignored the frustration he felt and instead focused on the fight ahead of him. He needed to keep a cool head if he wanted to turn this around.

He nodded towards the wood-user And Yamato started the second fight "Shino Aburame vs Choji Akimichi. Begin!"

Choji was still exhausted from the previous fight so instead of wasting his precious chakra on useless attacks he went straight for his signature move "Human Bullet Tank!"

Choji ballooned up again and started rolling around towards Shino who remained there motionless as the attack approached at high speeds. Everyone held their breath as Choji came in closer and they expected Shino to dodge at the last second. To their horror however he didn't dodge and Choji rammed straight in him. However instead of being thrown aside from the impact Shino exploded in a swarm of bugs that immediately attached themselves to Choji. The Akimichi tried to shake them off but they had already dug in and crawled underneath his clothes to start leeching of his chakra.

Soon Choji was forced to drop his Expansion Jutsu and collapsed from chakra-exhaustion. After he fell down all the bugs on his body flew out and returned to Shino who revealed himself from behind one of the trees at the side.

"Winner by KO: Shino Aburame." Yamato announced as the medics took Choji away. "Will the next fighter step forward please?"

"Man, this is troublesome." Shikamaru said as he seemed to drag himself down.

The two stood opposite each other and tried to analyze their opponent to try and get a grasp at him. To their surprise neither seemed capable of seeing through the other 'this will be hard.' they both thought.

"The third fight: Shino Aburame VS Shikamaru Nara: Begin!"

Shikamaru immediately started by expanding his shadow and stretching it on the ground towards Shino "Shadow Manipulation Jutsu."

Shino flipped back to avoid the shadow touching his own and threw several kunai at Shikamaru to make him lose concentration. This seemed to work as the Nara was forced to defend himself and deflect the kunai which cause his shadow to return to normal.

Next Shino send a wave of bugs from the sleeves of his jacket which tried to attack the shadow-user. However when they landed on Shikamaru he poofed away to reveal a log in his place with a sizzling tag on it. Shino tried to return his bugs but was too late as the tag exploded and took out all the insects with him.

'Damn, one more hit like that and I'll have to drop out or my hive gets destroyed.' Shino thought.

Meanwhile Shikamaru had stretched his shadow again and tried to catch the bug-user off guard. However Shino once again saw the attack coming and rolled to the side as the shadow passed him. He then took out a kunai and started running straight at Shikamaru while the near end of the shadow tried catching up with him on the way back. Shino came within five meter when suddenly a second shadow sprouted out from underneath Shikamaru and captured him.

"You made a second shadow?" Shino asked surprised. "I did not know you could do that."

"I kept it a secret for this reason." Shikamaru said before he lifted his arm and held it against his throat thus forcing Shino to do the same thing except he was still carrying his kunai.

"You are defenseless, Shino. Do you give up?" he asked.

Shino didn't say a word but only smiled as suddenly a large swarm of bugs came forth from his sleeves and surrounded the Nara. "You may have control of my body but my bugs can still move independently. If you strike they will kill you."

For a few seconds everyone held their breath as the two Genin looked each other straight in the eye before Shikamaru slowly lowered his arm. "I knew you would be troublesome. So It's a draw then?"

Shino nodded and slowly the bugs pulled back and returned to his body.

Yamato appeared and announced the result to everyone in the stadium "Both contestants surrendered. The third fight ends with a draw. Will the last two fighters Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka please step forward?"

* * *

Meanwhile the last match was heavily debated by the judges, including the two Kages.

"That was quite an interesting fight. Both of them showed a great insight in strategy and tactics." The Hokage said.

"They also knew when to step back and give up. Surrendering might not be a popular choice but in the battlefield they will save lives by not foolishly running into a hopeless situation."

"I agree. I think they are both ready to become Chunin."

"Definitely. But for now it seems the next fight is ready to start."

* * *

Back in the arena Ino and Sakura entered the battlefield for the last fight. Since both their teammates were already out it came down to their fight.

"What's the matter Forehead? Feeling nervous?" Ino asked her friend/rival.

"Not at all, Pig. If anything it is you that should be nervous. I have grown a lot these last six months. Don't think I am still the same girl from the academy."

"You think that changing your clothes and cutting your hair will be enough to defeat me?"

Sakura had indeed cut her previously long hair down to a few centimetres and started wearing actual ninja-gear instead of her old red and white dress. At first she wasn't sure about the changes Kurenai-sensei forced her to undergo but after a few missions she realized that being a ninja isn't a game and that long hair is liability on the field and not wearing reinforced clothes is just asking to be hit by a stray kunai or shuriken. The fact that Ino seemingly didn't know any of these things and still sported a long pony-tail told her enough about her friends attitude.

The Jonin in the audience had noticed as well and all the kunoichi, especially Kurenai and Anko, gave a nasty glare at Asuma for sending Ino out there like that. The smoking sensei of team ten suddenly felt a shiver run down his spine.

"Are both contestants ready?" Yamato asked "Then let the final fight begin!"

Sakura immediately went through several handsigns and put Ino in a subtle but nasty genjutsu. The technique was one of her own design she had developed with Kurenai's help. The trick was that the genjutsu had two layers on top of one another. The outer layer was a rather obvious and standard illusion that made someone see a demonic vision to try and overwhelm them. It was crude and thus easily detectable and easily breakable by all but the worst genjutsu users. The real surprise was however in the inner layer. The inner layer was a perfect copy of the real world but with a half-second time delay. The time delay is hardly noticeable at first but in a ninja battle half a second can be deadly.

As expected Ino managed to break through the outer layer almost immediately since her low chakra-reserves made breaking free from illusions rather easy. However she completely failed to notice the second genjutsu Sakura had trapped her in. "A simple illusion? Give me a break, Forehead! You're going to have to do better than that to bring me down!" she taunted unaware of the real danger she was now in.

Sakura smiled and dashed forward to try and test how good her time-delay technique held out in the field. She was pleased to see that Ino didn't react at all for the first half second indicating she was firmly trapped in her altered worldview. She then noticed with a frown that even with the small delay it took her a lot longer than it should have before she started defending herself. 'Goddammit Ino! You really need to take your training seriously. You could get killed if you act like that in the field!'

'**We'll show her how a real kunoichi acts and then Sasuke-kun will want to go out with us for sure!**' inner Sakura thought.

A good three seconds passed before Ino finally managed to react and threw a kunai at her. Or more accurately she threw the kunai to where Sakura should have been half a second ago, meaning she completely missed her mark.

When Ino saw her kunai go straight through Sakura's image without touching her the inconsistency in the world finally caught up with her brain and the genjutsu violently dispelled itself. When she recovered from the small and sudden headache she was surprised to see Sakura was a lot closer than she was a moment ago and was too late to defend herself when the other kunoichi punched her straight in the face knocking her back.

Ino flew at least twenty metres backwards towards the wall and crashed hard against the concrete knocking her out.

Yamato approached the struggling Ino and counted to 10 to give her a chance to continue. When she failed to stand back up in time he called the match in Sakura's favour as the crowd went wild.

"Damn Sakura, that was quite a punch!" Ino said to her rival as she accepted the outstretched hand.

"Thanks. It's a simple case of building chakra in your fists and releasing it at just the right moment of impact. I stumbled on the basic theory of this technique when studying some medical papers written by Tsunade of the Sannin. I heard that she perfected it to such a degree that she could split boulders with her fists. So I have a long way to go still."

* * *

Meanwhile Jiraiya had a shiver run up his spine as he remembered all the times he felt those fists of his teammate first hand. 'A second Tsunade? Kami help us all!'

* * *

In the Kage booth:

"Pathetic!" the Kazekage said bluntly, "that blonde thinks she is a ninja? With skills like that she's only waiting to be killed. Just look at her body, there's barely any muscle there!"

"I agree," the Hokage said, "Ino-chan has a lot of training to do if she wants to pass next time. I'll see to it that the youngest generation takes their career more seriously. And what about the other one? I was quite surprised with that last attack, it reminded me of my student Tsunade."

"The Pinkette? Hard to say. Her fight wasn't exactly challenging so her victory alone doesn't mean anything really. Though I did like the double-layered genjutsu. Very deceiving. But I'm not convinced it would work so well against a talented ninja. I want to see her fight against a real challenger before I make up my mind."

"Very well. Now it is finally time for your children to fight? Nervous, yet?"

"Not at all!" the Kazekage said with confidence, "Gaara is Suna's secret weapon. He cannot be defeated."

"We shall see."

* * *

In the arena:

Kabuto was getting anxious about his task. He originally planned to drop out at the end of the second round, claiming injuries prohibited him from fighting in preliminary matches Then out of the blue the Hokage announced that there would be no preliminary matches this year and he was forced to fight in the finals. To make matters worse his team was pitted against the unstable jinchuriki from Suna.

In order to keep his cover he was ordered to keep up appearances as a second-rate Genin while somehow surviving the match against that psychopath. Luckily he could count on his much more impulsive teammates Isumi and Yoroi to get themselves killed early on so he had a valid excuse to surrender and prepare for his real task Orochimaru had given him. He wondered if it was normal that he didn't even feel sorry for his teammates he was about to throw in the lion's den but shrugged it off. If he wanted to survive without revealing his real skills he needed to be focused. He looked to the right to see if Gaara was at least somewhat sane today but he was only met with a lust for blood.

"Mother wants blood." Gaara's creepy voice echoed through the hall they were currently walking in. "Mother will crush your puny little bones and make you scream. Then mother will be happy again."

"What a creep!" Yoroi said confidently, "I'll show that kid not to mess with us, right Kabuto?"

'Is he insane?' Kabuto thought but forced a smile anyway, "now, now Yoroi, don't underestimate your opponent."

"yeah right, as if a bunch of twerps could defeat our techniques." Misumi cut in.

Kabuto said nothing but decided that it was normal for him no to care after all. These two idiots deserved to die.

* * *

Back in the waiting area:

The other remaining teams were watching the last battle to see who would be their opponent in the next round.

"So who do you think will win?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, I would like to root for the Konoha-team, but I think the team from Suna is stronger. I don't really know why but that redhead just screams 'danger' to me. He's not one to be underestimated."

"yeah I know what you mean. Did you see the look in his eyes? Like he could snap any minute and just start killing people for fun."

"I know. And that weirdo with the make-up obviously isn't sane either."

"Both of you shut up! The match started." Hinata interrupted her teammates.

"So it's another team-battle." Kiba said as he approached team seven.

"Oh look at that, one of those guys in masks already caught that weirdo with the make up."

"How did he stretch his limbs like that?"

"I don't know but that guy is goner. OUCH, did he just broke his neck?"

"Not so fast guys." Hinata said with her Byakugan activated, "this battle isn't over yet."

"What do you mean? He just snapped his neck?" Naruto asked

"That's not his neck." Hinata said.

"Holy shit! It's a puppet!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed

The people in the audience grimaced as they watched Kankuro's face peel off to reveal the puppet underneath that promptly fired poison gas straight in Misumi's face thus killing him instantly.

"That's one down." Sasuke said, "and it looks like the other two aren't doing much better either."

They watched how Gaara finally managed to bury Yoroi underneath an avalanche of sand to end his match. At first it looked like the masked ninja had a fair chance when he managed to neutralize Gaara's sand by draining the chakra from it. But the other one simply responded by summoning so much sand in the arena that Yoroi had nowhere to hide nor was he fast enough to drain all the chakra in time before being crushed to death. When the sand retracted all that was left were bare bones and skin. All the blood had been squeezed out of his body until only dry husk remained.

After that gruesome display nobody blamed Kabuto for surrendering even though he managed to hold Temari at bay pretty easily until then.

There was a small uproar when Gaara seemingly refused the surrender and wanted to kill Kabuto anyway by sending sand projectiles at him but Yamato reacted in time and a wooden barrier sprung up to stop the attack. After threatening Gaara with disqualification for attacking after the battle ended he awarded them the victory anyway.

* * *

Meanwhile Kabuto was still shaking as he walked away from the arena 'That psychopath almost killed me! What was lord Orochimaru thinking when he brought Suna on board?'

After he got his nerves under control again he disappeared in the commotion. He still had a job to do after all.

* * *

Back in the stadium the four remaining teams were ready to draw lots for the second round.

"The second round will begin soon." Yamato explained to the audience with the voice-enhancing jutsu, "To test the candidates ability against unknown opponents the match-up of the second round will be decided by drawing lots. That way nobody was able to train with specific opponents in mind."

He then turned to the four teams and had them each draw a numbered ball from a box.

"I have one". Kiba said

"I have two" Naruto said.

"One as well Fu said."

"And number two here." Temari said.

"It has been decided then! The first match will be team Kurenai versus team Taki and the second match will be team Baki versus team Gai. The second round will begin in thirty minutes. Till then all contestants are to return to the waiting area to prepare."

Naruto silently poked Sasuke in the ribs to get his attention "Why do we have to wait half an hour? Can't we just start now?"

"Officially the waiting period is to give the last team that fought time to rest and to allow the judges to go over the first round again."

"Officially?"

"Well the truth is that it allows people to make bets for the second round as well. And since Konoha as host gets 15% of the profit they were very eager to make sure as much people as possible are able to place bets."

* * *

Meanwhile Kabuto had donned the disguise off an ANBU and was preparing for his upcoming task 'I have to wait till the Uchiha has his fight and then I give the signal. Konoha will fall today at last!'

* * *

A/N:

Sorry this chapter was pretty late, but with all the holidays I didn't have time to write much. the next chapters should be back on the normal schedule though.

please R&R


	18. The finals - 3

**18 – The Finals part 3**

After the intermission everyone returned to their seats to watch the first match of the semi-finals. In between the two rounds the bookkeepers had been busy to recalculate the odds of each team winning their next fight. Where the unknown Taki-team had started the tournament with a 1 – to – 5 disadvantage, which made some people quite a bit of money for betting on them, they were now the favourite with 6 - to - 1 odds in their favour to win against team eight.

Meanwhile team seven and the "Sand Siblings" as they had been renamed by a smart businessman were pretty much tied 50/50 and each stood at 2 -to -1.

Of course none of that information was known to the Genin in the waiting room who were preparing for their next match. Unlike the first round they all had seen their opponents fight and in turn they all had to give away some of their own secrets as well. Besides that they already had one fight behind them and some, like Kiba, had taken quite a beating already. One thing they all knew though was that this fight would be completely different than the last one.

Both teams were now down in the arena while Yamato introduced them once more to the audience and went over the rules again. He flipped the coin and Shino won by guessing tails. After a small discussion with his team were the three of them huddled together they decided to go for individual matches again.

And so Kiba and Akamaru found themselves facing Heero for the first fight.

* * *

"Are both contestants ready?" Yamato asked. After receiving two nods and an enthusiastic bark from Akamaru he lowered his arm and jumped back, "Begin!"

During the intermission and while being in the infirmary Kiba had received quite an earful from both his mother and his sensei Kurenai about not rushing in before thinking. Therefore he was more cautious this time around and managed to hold himself back considerably. So rather than rushing in immediately he managed to wait a full five seconds this time, which was his new personal best.

Luckily for him Heero wasn't in an optimal state either. Despite not being heavily injured in his last fight due to his timely surrender, he did suffer from chakra-exhaustion. As such he wasn't able to channel his lightning-chakra through his weapon or use one of his stronger, but too chakra-heavy techniques. He gripped his katana in both hands and tried blocking Kiba's attacks as good as he could Despite seeing many openings he would normally take advantage of he was currently not able to take any shots at the duo. 'Dammit, why did he had to go first? I only volunteered because I assumed they'd sent that girl in.'

Kiba on the other hand was feeling more and more confident as he saw his attacks slowly but steadily damaged his opponent. Feeling confident in his victory he decided to pull it up a notch and performed the man-beast-clone with Akamaru to double their attacks.

Heero on the other hand used the short delay in attacks to launch a jutsu of his own, "Lightning Style: Thunder Spark." he yelled as an arc of electricity sparked from his outstretched hands and hit Kiba's chest who was stunned from the shock.

However rather than taking advantage of the opening Heero fell down on one knee as he was struggling to catch his breath. 'Dammit! That took every bit of chakra I had. I won't lose like this!'

Meanwhile Kiba was also struggling to fight of the electricity that had paralysed his muscles. He realized he was completely spent but refused to give up when his opponent was this close to falling over himself. So for the second time that day he took one of the Inuzuka food pills to quickly restore his chakra and stamina. When he felt the energy coursing through his veins again he felt instantly relieved. 'I'm probably going to regret this later, but for now I can win this!' he thought as he remembered the side-effects of taking more than one food pill per day.

Heero meanwhile had his own secret weapon ready to turn the tide of the match around. He unsealed a small nicely decorated bottle filled with a pure liquid and downed the entire content in one gulp. Instantly his chakra-levels exploded and he felt better than he ever did in his entire life. 'So this is the power of the hero-water? It's amazing!'

Both shinobi stood up and looked each other straight in the eye. Neither was willing to lose now, not when they came this close. They nodded at each other and as if there was some unspoken agreement between them they each rushed forwards with their strongest move.

"Inuzuka style: Fang over Fang!" Kiba yelled as he and Akamaru combined their attacks to form one giant fast spinning vortex that rushed straight ahead.

Meanwhile Heero also used his most powerful technique. He coated his entire upper body in electricity and rushed ahead to end this match, "Lightning Style: Thunder Meteor!".

The two ninjas clashed head-on and both put every bit of energy they had in their technique. In the end though Heero proved to be slightly stronger and broke through Kiba's attack slamming him hard into the ground.

Yamato approached the Inuzuka and used a quick scanning justu on him. "Kiba is down and unable to continue. The winner is Heero."

The Taki-nin was ecstatic and raised his fist in celebration when the Hero Water's effect suddenly ran out and he collapsed on the ground. His eyes never had time to close before he fell unconscious.

* * *

In the Kage Booth:

"So that's Taki's 'Hero Water'? It's amazing how well it works, though the after-effects are quite severe." the Hokage said to his colleague.

"Indeed it is quite formidable. I wonder how a mere Genin could get his hands on it? I thought their supply was very limited?"

"Taki seems heavily determined to impress the crowd. This entire team is selected to be as strong as possible compared to the other ones they sent. It wouldn't surprise me if one of their elders simply gave him the Hero Water to make sure they won."

"I guess they forgot to mention that you shouldn't drink the entire bottle at once though." The Kazekage said with a smirk. "The kid is lucky he didn't die on the spot. But he will still be out of it for a month at least. It truly is a double-edged sword."

the Hokage nodded and resumed watching the next fight.

* * *

Meanwhile Krios and Sakura had entered the arena for the second fight between their teams. Both of them wanted to check up on their teammates in the medical bay but the rules of the tournament were clear: The matches could not be delayed and if they didn't show up they would be disqualified. So they had no choice but to go out there and continue the fight.

Sakura snapped out of her thoughts and looked over at Krios who was looking at her with a questionable gaze that was unnerving her. "What is it?" she snapped at the boy.

"I was just wondering." Krios said looking at her.

"Wondering about what then?"

"After that last guy I was wondering if you actually are a girl or not. Apparently you can never be sure with ninja from the Leaf."

**'That god damn motherfucker questions whether we are girls? I'm going to rip his balls off for that remark!' **Inner Sakura thought and for once the real one didn't disagree as a nasty glare appeared on the pinkette's face.

"Proctor, start the match now!" she hissed at Yamato who knew better then to deny her.

As soon as the fight started Sakura went for her item-pouch and pulled out a long chain with a heavy weight at the end which she started spinning around at amazing speeds. She then put up a fake smile and asked Krios in a sweet but nonetheless scary voice whether he cared to repeat that.

Krios gulped at the threat and jumped to the side to dodge a strike from the chain that shot out of her hands and put a none too small crater in the ground he just stood on. 'Oh, crap! Why do I always end up with the crazy ones?' he thought as he dodged another lethal strike of the weapon.

* * *

In the audience:

Kurenai looked surprised to see her student pull out the chain-weapon and using it so expertly, 'Where did she learn how to do that?' she thought when she heard her best friend Anko laughing like a mad woman next to her. 'Of course, I should have known letting Anko train her for a month would spell trouble.'

"Anko," she asked her best friend innocently, "I don't remember you mentioning anything about teaching my students the use of lethal weapons... Care to explain?"

Anko stopped laughing and turned her head nervously towards the red-eyed woman. "Didn't I mention that?" she said nervously, "It must have slipped my mind then."

"Really?" Kurenai said with one eyebrow raise, "and did anything else slip your mind as well?"

"No no, that was everything... Well almost everything." she said with a grin.

"What else have you been teaching her?" She asked with a no-nonsense voice.

"Nothing special: physical training, some taijutsu, shuriken throwing." Anko said.

"And...?" Kurenai asked, clearly not believing that was all Anko did.

"I may have let her sign the snake-contract as well..." Anko finally confessed.

Kurenai's eyes widened in shock, for Anko to let someone else sign the contract of her former sensei was unheard of. She wasn't sure whether she should be angry or happy at what she did. Eventually though she decided to forgiver her friend. Of course there was no need to say that immediately, was there? Anko did had some payback coming after all.

"We will discuss this later, Anko. And you better have a good excuse for messing with my training plans." she was pleased to see her friend look down with guilt and had to suppress a grin, 'oh, I am going to enjoy this. This is payback for all the times you crash at my place and eat my food.'

* * *

Back in the arena:

Sakura was still swinging her weighted chain around to keep Krios at a distance. The Taki-nin was slowly being pushed back by the unpredictable and lightning fast strikes of the chain. It oddly reminded him of a viper striking at his prey with lightning reflexes.

He had tried to even the odds by using one of his own threads as a whip to counter her but found that the chain was made of solid steel and razor sharp links when it cut clear through his threads like a hot knife through butter.

Krios was forced to keep his distance as getting anywhere near the chain of the still enraged female was nothing but suicide. He tried switching tactics several times but so far Sakura had seen through his every trick: his genjutsus were easily detected and countered, he had no chance to even try his close-combat taijutsu and his best ninjutsus all required several handseals and thus a lot of preparation time the kunoichi would not grant him. He tried several of his weaker ones which he could do with a single seal but the distance between them made it too easy for her to dodge and evade the weaker attacks.

'Dammit Heero! Why the hell did you drink all of our Hero Water? That bottle was supposed to be three doses.' He thought in frustration at not being able to use Taki's secret weapon which could have easily given him the power to win.

He tried to unleash another of his devastating techniques but halfway though his handseals he had to narrowly dodge another strike causing him to lose concentration. He sighed and realised he couldn't win this way so rather than needlessly prolonging the inevitable, he surrendered instead. He hoped that he had at least shown enough skills and insight already to warrant a promotion by now.

When he returned to the waiting area Fu gave him a consolidating pat on the shoulder as she went in next. She was pleasantly surprised at Sakura's performance. Earlier she didn't have a strong opinion on her based on the fight with the blonde but it seems she held back considerably and merely didn't wish to hurt her friend rather than being as weak as she portrayed herself to be. It seemed to have worked as Krios had indeed greatly underestimated her and lost because of that. She knew that if he took her seriously from the start he would have been able to win but his own arrogance had made him surrender. Secretly she was kind of glad he was shown his place by a fellow girl. He needed to be taken down a peg or two for his own good.

Still she came here to win and would not hold back in the upcoming fight. Nonetheless she did smile at the Sakura when she took her position opposite of her and entered her fighting stance.

"Are both contestants ready? Then begin!" Yamato announced while jumping back.

Sakura once again pulled out her chain-weapon and started swinging it around to build momentum. However unlike her teammate Fu was prepared for it and had already determined a way to counter it. She wasted no time and moved in close immediately. Sakura, as expected, had no choice but to already launch her chain at the incoming kunoichi before she had managed to build up the momentum necessary for the quick strikes she displayed in the earlier fights. Therefore the chain struck at a considerably lower speed and Fu managed to narrowly avoid it while still storming forward.

Sakura panicked slightly when her first attack missed but managed to think on her feet and with a flick of her wrist redirected the weapon to wrap around Fu. However rather than being incapacitated by the chains Fu seemed just fine, as if her skin was stronger than the stainless steel the chain was made out of.

With no time to react she found herself grappled by the Taki-nin who harshly threw her on the ground and placed the flat of a kunai against her throat. The message was clear: this match is over.

Yamato wasted no time and declared Fu the winner while the audience cheered at her quick victory.

When Sakura walked back to the waiting area she stopped Shino as he walked past her, "Be careful out there. There is something weird going on with her."

"What makes you say that?" Shino asked in his stoic voice, though Sakura knew he was actually genuinely curious.

"My chain didn't miss the second time. It circled around her just fine and made contact with her skin. Yet she shrugged it off as if it were nothing! There is more to her than meets the eye."

"I understand." Shino simply said before resuming his walk the middle of the arena.

* * *

With the Kages:

"My my," The Kazekage said, "that pink-haired girl had a lot more things hiding up her sleeves than I first expected."

"Indeed, she was wise to not show her true potential in the earlier match. By deceiving the competition she managed to gain the element of surprise and won because of it."

"That level of forethought and planning is indeed admirable. I suppose she might be Chunin-worthy after all."

* * *

Back in the arena:

Shino was beginning to get quite worried about this next fight since the closer he got towards the green-haired girl, the more anxious and uneasy his hive began to act. He had to manually use his chakra to interfere with the hivemind twice already just to keep them in check. From the messages he picked up from his insects the girl before him was described as "a massive enemy beetle" and every instinct told him to run away and fear for his life. He had never heard about any hive having such a reaction, and the Aburame had faced many strong opponents. Still he had managed to keep them down and in line so he was ready to start the fight. He would ask his father later what could cause such an unusual reaction.

When the battle started he sent his bugs out to try and swarm her. He knew from the earlier fights and from her match against Sakura that she had a really strong physical defence and relied mostly in taijutsu, 'maybe a bloodline or some sort of Earth-technique?' he figured. So instead of trying to damage her defences he tried to let his swarm surround her and drain her dry of chakra. Most taijutsu-based opponents didn't know how to fight against large concentrations of bugs. And they can drain chakra without needing to really damage her unusually strong skin at all. All in all it was a logical and sound strategy.

So he was quite surprised to see his insects swarm her and then back off immediately without draining any of her chakra. He mentally contacted his hivemind again to see what the problem is and was assaulted by several images of a giant beetle. He decided to oversee the next attack personally and ordered his insects to attack again without cutting the connection to the hive. As the swarm once again reached Fu, who tried desperately to swat them away, he ordered them to drain her chakra. The bugs latched onto the various tenketsu of Fu's body and started to drain the chakra from them. At first everything went smoothly when suddenly the infamous beetle showed up in the hivemind and wrestled the control away from him. He looked in awe and fear at the giant insect with 6 wings and one tail as it noticed him and seemed to grin, as far as that was possible for beetles.

Chomei looked amused at the Aburame, he never expected to see a human inside the hivemind of the bugs that kept bothering him. He had scared these chakra-draining kikai off a few times already and usually not a singe insect would dare try again after that. But now that he saw Shino there he realized that it was he who had commanded the insects to attack his vessel again. **"****Well, well, well what have we here? I don't think I've ever seen a bug like yourself. Let's get to know each other a little better shall we?****" **the seven-tailed beetle said as he closed in on Shino's mental appearance.

Back in the real world only several seconds passed before Shino suddenly let out an ear-deafening scream and collapsed unconscious on the ground. Fu immediately appeared by his side to check on him and mentally contacted her unwanted tenant 'Chomei! What did you do to him?' she demanded.

**'Take it easy sweetheart,' **the demon chuckled, **'He's just in a bit of a shock, that's all. I'm sure your little boyfriend will be fine in no time at all.'**

'He's not my boyfriend dammit!' Fu responded mentally before cutting the connection and muttering something about know-it-all insects.

Meanwhile Yamato had performed a quick scanning jutsu on Shino and declared him unconscious and therefore unable to continue. "The winner of the first semi-finals is team Taki!" he announced much to the audience's confusion at at the short and anti-climatic fight.

* * *

Several minutes after Shino's hospitalization team seven and team Baki stood opposite each other to earn the last place in the finals.

After yet another coin toss Temari picked another round of individual matches and she started the first match against Naruto. After Yamato gave the starting signal Temari unfolded her giant battle-fan and launched a giant windblast at Naruto. Naruto reacted by unsealing his hidden blade and letting his own wind-chakra pour through it, with his enhanced blade he literally cut Temari's attack in half and then moved in to put the pressure on the blonde Sand-nin. Temari saw him coming and folded her fan again to stop the attack. Naruto was surprised to see the fan withstood his slash and wasn't damaged at all. "Why didn't it get cut? That attack is powerful enough to cut solid steel in half!" he asked.

"Suna's battle-fans are made especially to channel wind-energy," Temari explained, "I have been channelling wind-chakra into this fan for years. It grew quite resistant to it." she said with a smirk.

"I should have known it wasn't going to be that easy." he said, "but I got more tricks up my sleeve than that."

"Really? Well, let's see what tricks you have against this!" Temari said as she jumped back and went through several handsigns, "Wind-style: Vacuum bullets." she inhaled deeply and shot out five projectiles with a completely empty vacuum inner shell. Naruto once again readied his blade to cut the projectiles in half but was quite surprised when rather than dispelling they exploded in his face and threw him back on the ground.

"Quite nasty isn't it?" Temari taunted, "the bullets are moving shells of vacuum. When you disturb one of them they automatically collapse and violently attract all the surrounding air into it after which it explodes again."

"That's a nice attack," Naruto commented, "here's one of mine. Wind-style: Windblades!"

"Too easy," Temari said a she unfolded her fan and simply swatted the windblades away, "do you call that an attack?"

"No," Naruto said from behind her, "that's what I call a distraction!"

Temari's eyes widened and she turned around on her back heel to hit Naruto with her fan. She ducked under his punch at the last second and managed to hit him right in the middle of his chest. But rather than being hit he merely smiled before dispelling with a pop. Before Temari fully realized what happened the ground under her feet crumbled and several chains sprung from underneath her and bound her tightly. "Of course the second attack was a distraction as well, didn't I mention that?"

Temari tried to struggle but the chains didn't give any leeway and she was forced to surrender once she felt they started draining her chakra. "I surrender." She said in distaste.

The next match was between Kankuro and Hinata, who replaced Naruto. As soon as the fight started Kankuro called out his puppet Crow while Hinata activated her Byakugan.

She blinked several times in surprise before smirking. Everybody was surprised when she ignored both Kankuro and his puppet and instead ran straight at the forest near the edge of the arena.

* * *

"Father, what is Hinata doing?" Hanabi asked, "why isn't she attacking her opponent?"

"I don't know," Hiashi said in confusion, "unless..." He activated his own Byakugan and looked at the field. He smiled when he saw the real Kankuro sitting inside a tree while both his puppets were on the field, one of which under a genjutsu to make it appear as if he was standing in the middle and Crow was his only puppet. It was quite a good strategy he admitted, he fought with Crow as a distraction in the hope his opponent would move in to attack the second puppet, at which point he would reveal it and capture his would-be attacker to finish him off.

'A good strategy indeed, but completely useless against the all-seeing eyes of the Byakugan. Hinata saw through his trick in no time and is now heading towards his real hiding place.' He thought with a smile.

"Don't worry Hanabi," he said, "your sister knows exactly what she is doing."

* * *

Hinata crossed the distance towards the trees in no time at all and charged her hands with chakra to strike at Kankuro's hiding place. Meanwhile the puppeteer was sweating bullets when he realized his ruse had failed completely. Not only was his trap discovered before he had managed to take out even one of the Leaf-nins he was also discovered immediately and found himself without either of his puppets to defend himself with. And when you are in close-combat with a Hyuga that is never a good thing.

Deciding he had no alternative lest he be knocked out immediately he performed a substitution with the only object available: his second puppet. He found himself back in the middle of the arena and looked with a grimace as Hinata's attack pulverized the puppet he had sacrificed to save his skin. 'At least I still have Crow, this battle isn't over yet.'

After destroying his puppet Hinata once again stormed at him with her Byakugan blazing and her hands charged with chakra. Kankuro took control of crow and sent his puppet after her to start the second round of their fight. However being able to clearly see the chakra-threads that connected the puppet with the puppeteer she once again had an unfair advantage in the fight. She dodged under the poisoned scythes of Crow and made a slashing move with her hands at the chakra-threads behind the puppet to cut its strings lose. She watched in satisfaction as it dropped lifelessly to the ground like the block of wood it had been reduced to. Kankuro tried desperately to reattach new threads but Hinata simply cut them in half as she slowly marched towards him with a sly smile on her face.

* * *

"Does she really need to put on such a show?" Sasuke asked a grinning Naruto, "You are a very bad influence, you know that? I remember she used to be a sweet and innocent girl before you corrupted her."

Naruto mocked pinking a tear away from his eye, "They grow up so fast. I'm so proud of her."

"I swear, you will be the death of me one day." Sasuke said as he looked back to the match where Kankuro desperately tried attacking her with a kunai that was simply knocked aside before receiving a strike in his stomach that knocked him over.

"Damn, right in the core. That's got to hurt." Sasuke flinched as both males remembered the times they received a similar attack in training.

"That's two down and one to go." Naruto said to Sasuke, "Better make it quick so we can go win this thing and get promoted."

"Easy for you to say, you saw what Gaara did to Kabuto's team. He's not like his other teammates."

"Making excuses already?" Naruto jested, "You're not afraid are you?"

In response Sasuke simply jumped down in the arena-floor to begin his fight.

"He's going to die, you know." Temari said from behind him, "You guys are strong but you just can't defeat Gaara. He will defeat your teammate and then he will kill him."

Naruto looked at her with a blank face before watching the upcoming fight, "Never lost, did he? Well there's a first time for everything."

* * *

Once the fight started it soon became obvious that defeating Gaara wasn't going to be as easy as Naruto first believed. Sasuke displayed a wide arrange of different attacks but all of them seemed worthless against the red-head's sand.

Sasuke's shurikens and kunai were easily intercepted and batted aside, no matter how many he launched at the same time. His fire attacks were equally worthless against the living sand. He figured that it should have been theoretically possible to turn the sand to glass with fire but in order to do that he needed to get his fire up to 2,300°C, which was far far hotter than anything he was capable of. He had some mild success with his electric attacks as those had a natural advantage over earth-techniques but so far he hadn't managed to damage all the sand fast enough to get to Gaara himself. Meanwhile he had to constantly use his Sharingan to dodge wave after wave of attacks launched by the redhead who grew more unstable by the minute and was actively calling for his blood now.

Deciding that there was no other option he fell back to the edge of the stadium and readied the Chidori. It was the only electric move he could think of that would be powerful enough to pierce that impenetrable sand-armour.

However as he charged his attack and the distinct sound of chirping birds began echoing through the stadium a secret sign was given and one of the ANBU began casting a stadium-wide technique "Illusionary arts: temple of nirvana" Kabuto whispered as hundreds of white feathers began falling from the sky and putting people to sleep everywhere.

Then chaos erupted everywhere, the Kazekage and his four bodyguards had taken Sarutobi captive in a hastily erupted barrier. Luckily Kakashi was paying attention and managed to sneak inside just in time to help out.

In other parts of the village various Sound-nins and Sand-nins revealed themselves and started attacking while the forces from Konoha fought back.

In the stadium Kankuro and Temari appeared next to Gaara to get him to their designated position so he had the time to unleash his inner demon. Meanwhile Naruto and Hinata appeared next to Sasuke and Yamato to see what was going on.

Yamato turned towards team seven and went straight to the point: "We are under attack. Consider the exams cancelled and help out in the defence of our village. Find your sensei and he will tell you where to go."

The three nodded and sprinted for the stands, "Any idea where Gai is?" Naruto asked Hinata as a sudden cry of "YOUTH!" interrupted his question. "Never mind, let's go."

* * *

Krios and Fu looked at each other as everyone around them started fighting. "So, now what?" he asked.

"I guess Konoha technically is our ally. So help them out I guess?"

"Sounds fun, let's see where those three Sand-nin are going shall we? I really wanted to fight that Gaara."

And with that the two of them headed of towards the forest where Gaara, Kankuro and Temari were headed.


	19. The invasion

**19) The invasion**

Team seven fought their way through the stadium to reach their sensei Might Gai who, alongside Kurenai, Anko, Hayate and Asuma was trying to stop as many invaders as possible while the civilians were being escorted to one of the many safehouses in the village.

When they reached the senseis they saw their fellow classmates and Karin were also only ones missing where Kiba and Shino who hadn't recovered form their fight yet.

"Gai-sensei, what's going on?" Naruto asked.

It was Kurenai who answered them, "It would appear we are under attack from both the new Sound-village and our former allies of Sand."

"An invasion?" Hinata asked, "What do we do now?"

"We fight back and defend our home with the glorious flames of youth!" Gai answered while everyone except team seven was staring dumbfounded at his antics.

"Moving on," Asuma said catching their attention again, "Team ten, you and Sakura will help move the civilians to the safehouses. Try and get as many as you can to safety but don't engage the enemy unnecessary. Team eleven, you guys will move to the central market district and make a stand until reinforcements arrive, you have permission to use deadly force against all enemies. Team seven and Karin: you will clear the hospital and make another stand over there. Make sure that the people inside are safe from attacks until they are all safely evacuated. Team ten, you will do the same at at the academy. Everyone got that?"

All the Genin nodded.

"Alright, go to your post and remember: this is not a drill."

"Yes, sensei." all the Genin said before they moved out to carry out their mission.

"And what will we do?" Kurenai asked.

"Our job is to hold back the main force and to clear out as many people already in the village as possible until the second stage of the evacuation-plan is ready to commence and we drive them out."

"And what about their jinchuriki?" Anko asked.

"No worries there, Yamato is already on it. He will stop it before it reaches the wall."

"Then what are waiting here for?" Gai demanded, "It is time we defend our home with the noble spirit of youthfulness!"

The other Jonin all looked around before they finally shrugged and went to their positions. It was going to be a long day.

* * *

Team seven ran straight for the hospital at the east side of Konoha and were relieved that they had arrived before any of the invaders had managed to get in and kill all the patients. They quickly set a perimeter and a small blockade around the main entrance and were done just in time before the first enemies approached them. A small group of ten ninja with the Sound-emblem on their headbands tried to score some quick kills against the defenseless people of the hospital but were easily stopped by team seven. Hinata stood on a higher platform with her Byakugan activated and her trusty bow in hand to shoot at all those who came near, and a lot of people who didn't but just happened to approach within 500 meters of the hospital. Many Sound-nin died from her chakra-arrows that seemingly came out of nowhere and dissipated just as quickly after striking them. 'And to think father never believed in long range attacks' she thought as she shot yet another arrow in the air to hit a target 467 meters away.

During the next few minutes the number of enemies started increasing a lot and soon both Naruto, Karin and Sasuke also had their hands full with stopping the incoming ninjas. Sasuke and Naruto had a little competition going to see who could take down the most enemies. Currently Sasuke was winning with 27 to 23 but Naruto was determined not to lose and summoned one of his owls to help him out. After all everything a summoned animal did was credited to the one who summoned him so it technically wasn't cheating, right?

However as soon as Minerva appeared he was in for another surprise when she spoke to him, **"Naruto! It's good that you finally summoned me. ****We have received some very serious news and need you to do us a favour.****"**

"We are kind of in the middle of something here." Naruto said awkwardly as yet another wave of enemies approached them, "Konoha is under attack, can't this wait till after it's over? I'll be glad to help out then."

"**It might already be too late by then. In fact," **Minerva said as she looked around the village until her eyes fell on the sealed barrier where the Hokage was fighting, **"our elder is convinced that helping us will greatly help you in this attack as well."**

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked curiously.

"**It would be better if our elder explained it himself. Focus on summoning the owl named Asmodeus and he will explain it all. In the meantime I will fight the enemies of your village to keep your mind at ease." **

Naruto shrugged and went through the seals for the summoning jutsu again, "Summoning Jutsu: Asmodeus."

When Minerva said he was an elder, Naruto expected another giant owl the size of Athena, instead the summoned owl looked no bigger than a real one with gray feathers and even a small beard under his beak.

"Ah, you must be the new summoner I heard about." the old owl said and seemingly made a small bow, "I am Asmodeus, elder of the owls."

Naruto returned the bow, "The pleasure is all mine Asmodeus-sama. But might I ask why you requested to see me right now? As you can see my village is under attack right now."

"I know but what I have to tell you is very important for the future of this village as well. But we have no time to waste, follow me and I'll explain along the way. We have no time to lose." With that the old owl spread his wings and flew off towards the stadium and the sealed barrier while Naruto jumped alongside him to hear him out.

"Now, as you know our last summoner was none other than Tobirama Senju, the man you know better as the second Hokage."

Naruto nodded as he remembered reading the name on the summoning scroll.

"Now Tobirama created many jutsu in his life but there was one that stood out among them. It was pure genius but also very dark and dangerous. He found a way to resurrect the dead and command them from beyond the grave!"

"What!" Naruto yelled, "Why did he create such a technique? I though he was one of the good guys."

"The exact creation process is too long to explain right now, let's just say he accidentally stumbled upon it when studying the Uzumaki-clan's death reaper seal. But anyway, that's not the point right now. The point is that he was so afraid of his jutsu falling in the wrong hands that he build in a safe-switch in case it was ever used against Konoha. He gave me, as his personal summon, exact instructions on what to do in case it was ever performed."

"Wait, you don't mean..." Naruto had a bad feeling at what Asmodeus was talking about.

"Yes. Five minutes ago, the security seals he ordered placed on both his own and his brother's remains were activated. Someone resurrected him and is using the Edo Tensei against Konoha. If we don't interfere now your opponents will have have free reign of their powers. And I can assure you that the two of them fighting together were a very dangerous combination."

"I understand," Naruto said, "So what do we do?" Meanwhile they had landed on the roof of the building next to the stadium where they saw Orochimaru alongside the first and second Hokage fighting against the third and Kakashi. Their private battlefield was cut off from the rest of the village by a very strong four-point barrier put up by Orochimaru's four bodyguards. Naruto saw several ANBU frantically looking for weak spots while they were helpless to see their Hokage and their commander fight for their lives. He also saw the remains of one ANBU who witnessed first hand how strong the barrier was, 'Damn it, Pigeon was always too eager for his own good, he shouldn't have rushed in like that. Kakashi always said it would kill him one day.' Naruto thought.

"All right, we are here. What do I do?" Naruto asked the old owl.

"The basic idea is for us to steal the control away from that pale guy and return both of them to their senses. After that they will take care of things themselves."

"Seems logical, and how do I do that?"

"Just follow these steps." Asmodeus said as he explained the safety-switch the second Hokage purposely left behind.

* * *

Inside the barrier:

Not knowing what Naruto was up to, the Third Hokage and Kakashi were currently locked in combat with the first two Hokages in one of the hardest fights of their life so far. At first they enjoyed a small two-on-one advantage against the snake-nin but that changed drastically when he used that forbidden jutsu of his to get reinforcements. Luckily Minato's soul was with the Death God himself and thus couldn't be called upon, because he was sure they wouldn't survive fighting him as well.

The Third jumped out of the way when a giant tree started quickly growing underneath his earlier position, courtesy of his first sensei Hashirama Senju. Meanwhile Kakashi, who had revealed his Sharingan from the start of the fight, was locked in combat with the second Hokage Tobirama Senju. Hiruzen had to admit that the resurrection-technique was pretty unbeatable so far: not only did you had to fight against some of the strongest people in history (nobody wasted their time with resurrecting weaklings after all) they were also pretty much immortal as well. So far they had managed to crush them under an Earth-dragon, behead each of them twice and Kakashi even pierced his sensei's heart with a Chidori. And every time they simply restored themselves and kept fighting as if nothing had happened. It drove him crazy that any technique, though immoral, could be so unbalanced. There had to be a weakness they could exploit, so why couldn't he find it? He figured the Death reaper Seal would do the trick since it attacked the soul itself but he'd rather not sacrifice his own life if he could help it.

However suddenly both his former senseis stopped in the middle of their attacks and seemed to stand immobile for a few seconds. He was wondering what his student was planning but Orochimaru seemed as confused as he was and he ordered them to keep attacking. Then a pair of seals appeared on both their foreheads and a second later Hashirama came to his senses. The first Hokage blinked in confusion as he saw his successor standing before him as an old man, "Hiruzen, is that you? Damn you look old! What is going on here?"

"It looks like we were resurrected by the Edo Tensei, dear brother." Tobirama answered the question as he too came to his senses.

Meanwhile Orochimaru was sweating bullets when he realized he somehow lost control of the technique and forced all his chakra into enslaving both Hokages once more, "I order you to attack them!"

Tobirama turned around and had a sly smile on his face as he looked at the pale figure that desperately tried to win control back, "So you thought you could use my own technique against me? I have some bad news for you in that case. I had an emergency seal in place to make sure nobody could use my creation against this village."

Orochimaru was really panicking now, "That's not possible! I studied that scroll inside out! There is no way I would have missed something like that!"

"You don't really think I am stupid enough to put my insurance inside the very scroll that details how to summon me?" Tobirama said as he slowly approached the snake-nin while his killing intent was rising.

Orochimaru knew when a battle was lost and ordered his bodyguards to drop the barrier while he made a mad dash for it. To his credit he managed to at least reach the edge of the roof they were on before Hashirama's trees blocked his path and threw him back before the gathered Kages. His four bodyguards were also trapped inside a tree and rendered completely immobile. Even after activating some seal that gave them a power-up they could not even hope to break free from their impromptu prison.

"It's over, my old student." The third said solemnly, "this time you won't escape." He quickly went through several handseals and unleashed an enormous torrent of concentrated fire that ended the life of the traitorous snake-nin once and for all.

Kakashi and the three Kages spent several seconds looking at the burning remains of one of the sannin when another voice broke their thoughts, "Holy shit! That was freaking awesome!"

The four of them looked back and saw Naruto standing there with a giant grin on his face after he just witnessed the coolest thing he ever saw in his young life.

"Naruto?" the Third asked, "What are you doing here? You should be with your team to help us stop this invasion."

"Don't be so hard on the boy, Hiruzen. I'm pretty sure he saved your life just now." Asmodeus revealed himself on Naruto's shoulder.

"Asmo!" Tobirama exclaimed and appeared in front of the old owl, "So you are the one who helped us? It's good to see you again old owl. So who is your friend then?" he asked pointing to Naruto.

"This is Naruto Uzumaki. He is our new summoner." Asmodeus said, "and technically he is the one who took control of your technique."

"Ah, an Uzumaki. I should have realized it sooner with the ungodly amount of chakra you possess." Hashirama said while standing next to his brother and ruffled Naruto's hair. Normally the blond didn't like it when people did that but for the first Hokage he gladly made an exception.

At that moment however a giant three-headed snake pushed his way through the Eastern Wall while they saw what appeared to be the one-tails himself appear in the forest from the West and headed their way as well.

"It would appear this fight isn't over yet," The Third said as he readied his gear again to defend his village.

"Oh man, this is great!" the first said casually, "This is going to be an awesome fight, just like the old days! You mind if we join?"

"Dammit brother, this is no laughing matter!" Tobirama said agitated at his sibling's antics, "our village is under attack here. I wish you took things seriously for once."

"Sure thing, bro!" Hashirama said with a smile and a thumbs up. "You take the snake, I'll take the raccoon. First one to goes down wins and the loser pays the sake!" and with that he simply took off towards Gaara's position.

"Oh hell no! I'm not paying for your drinking binges!" Tobirama yelled and he disappeared as well.

Naruto, Kakashi and Hiruzen looked at their retreating forms in amazement, 'these are the strongest Kages in our village's history?' they thought.

After a few seconds with none of them acting Asmodeus cleared his throat to get their attention, "Shouldn't you three be helping in the defense as well?" he asked.

"Oh right," The Third said, "Kakashi, you're with me towards the main arena to clear out all the remaining enemies. Naruto, you go back to team seven and continue your original mission. It's time we take back our village!"

"Yes Hokage-sama!" they both said and disappeared to carry out their orders.

* * *

With the First Hokage:

Hashirama quickly crossed the distance towards the forest in the West to engage the tailed beast. He appeared near the giant raccoon and took note of his surroundings. The beast was still locked in combat against one ninja from Taki, who he noted looked quite similar to that assassin Kakuzu they once sent after him, and a Konoha ANBU. He also saw two girls laying unconscious on the ground; one Suna-nin with blonde hair and a giant fan was laying on her back and didn't seem to move while another Taki-nin with green hair was face-down on the ground with a lot of blood around her.

He was surprised to see the ANBU go through some very familiar handseals, 'no way, it can't be!' but when several trees sprouted around the one-tails to keep it in check he knew for sure, 'another wood-style user appeared? Is he family? A son of Tsunade perhaps?'

When the one-tails crushed the trees without any apparent resistance it was obvious that they needed his help. So he jumped in and joined the battle.

"Need a hand?" he asked the ANBU who looked as if he saw a ghost, 'Well technically I am dead...'

"You're the first Hokage!" Yamato screamed in surprise, "How is this possible?"

"Long story short: Some guy used my brother's technique to resurrect us but my brother installed a loophole and we managed to get control of our bodies back. So now we are going around the battlefield to help our village." he said without a care in the world.

'How can talk so casually about resurrecting the dead?' Yamato wondered, 'Is that the God of Shinobi?'

"Anyway, can you fill me in on what's going on here?"

"Yes sir! Hokage-sama" Yamato said, "I went after the jinchuriki almost immediately since I am the only wood user in the village. When I arrived here there were two other Genin from Taki already fighting him and his sister. The green-haired girl is a jinchuriki as well and at first they were evenly matched but then Gaara became desperate and unleashed his demon entirely. The girl got quickly knocked out and her friend isn't able to do much more. I tried using my wood-style since it is supposed to work against demons but so far they aren't really doing anything."

"Ah yes," Hashirama nodded with a smile, "the wood-style is actually useless against demons. It's a common mistake."

"What!" Yamato yelled while his eyes bulged in disbelief, "but how? Everyone knows the story of you taming the Kyubi. You're telling me that never happened?"

"Oh no it did happen, but defeating the Kyuubi and subduing its power has nothing to do with my wood-style. The real secret is using an advanced form of Yin-Yang release. I simply used my trees as a medium to make it easier, but theoretically speaking anyone can learn this with or without the Wood-Style."

'Couldn't he have mentioned that sooner?' Yamato sweat-dropped.

Just then Shukaku had managed to knock Krios out and focused its attention on the two Wood-users while letting out a roar.

"Anyway I think it's time we stop this big fellow here before things get seriously out of hand."

With that the First Hokage jumped into action and faster than Yamato could follow sped through several handseals to unleash his devastating attack "Wood Style: Wood Dragon" he yelled as a truly enormous serpentine wooden dragon with an elongated trunk-like nose sprouted from the ground and circled around the One-tails constricting it like a snake would. "now watch this," he said as he changed to the dragonseal, "Yin-Yang release: Demonic chakra absorption!"

Before his eyes the wooden dragon tightened his grip on the one-tails as the latter one slowly shrunk away while screaming in agony. Once a certain point was reached the rest of its body crumpled in a heap of sand while only Gaara remained behind. The first Hokage jumped in the air and caught him before he reached the ground. "There we go," he said.

"Hoy Kami!" Yamato exclaimed, "That was amazing! I never knew the Wood Release could do all of that!"

Meanwhile Hashirama used a medical technique on Fu to heal her headwound and lifted the unconscious girl in his his arms while two clones did the same for Temari and Krios. "Don't worry about it!" he said with a smile, "I'm sure you will be able to do the same in no time! Anyway let's get these kids to the hospital."

"Yes Hokage-sama" Yamato said as he picked up Gaara's body and followed him back to the village.

* * *

With the Second Hokage:

After his brother challenged him to see who could destroy their target first Tobirama rushed straight at the East gate where the giant snake had broken through followed by a large group of Suna-nin who were locked in battle with Konoha's defenders. While he would have defended his village anyway, he was really determined not to lose the bet and be forced to pay his brother's drinking tab. A side-effect of Hashirama's insane regeneration was that he basically never got drunk; the alcohol simply had no time to act before it was already flushed. As such he could drink a lot more than your average guy and his bills tended to grow quite high. As he approached his target he prepared his signature move, the Giant Water Dragon when someone else beat him to it.

"Summoning jutsu: Bringing down the house!" Jiraiya announced as a giant toad with two katana's strapped on its back appeared above the snake and landed right on top of it. The Sannin smiled as the snake got crushed by the mass of Gamahiro and dispelled itself, "Oh yeah, I still got it!" he said as the Konoha ninja cheered at him.

Tobirama blinked as he realized he wasn't even necessary to take down the snake and wondered how this would affect their bet, 'Technically it got killed before that raccoon did so that's good enough in my book. It's Hashi's own fault for not specifying the rules better.' he concluded. He then turned towards the invading Suna-nin and decided that he still had a part to play. So he jumped into the battle to help his fellow Shinobi out.

When the supposedly dead Second Hokage jumped in the middle of the fight and started defending the wall a lot of people freaked out and turned to Jiraiya for help. But if Jiraiya was at all surprised to see a zombified Hokage from the past appear and help them out he didn't show it. He had seen a lot of crazy stuff in his days and learned to just go with the flow and get answers later. At least the Second Hokage was on his side so there was nothing to be worried about. He quickly shouted orders to continue fighting and let him worry about the unexpected help.

The Suna-nin on the other were quickly losing all morale. First their giant summon, courtesy of the Otokage Orochimaru, was killed almost as soon as they summoned it and then both a Sannin and a zombie-Hokage teamed up to attack them. To make matters worse the Second Hokage was taunting them by simply refusing to defend at all, instead he took any desperate attack head on and reformed himself without a scratch before their very eyes. Meanwhile he himself didn't hold back on his offensive jutsus and soon his Water Dragons were wreaking havoc amongst their quickly thinning ranks. Eventually their commanding officer saw the hopelessness of the situation and ordered his troops to fall back.

When the defeated Suna-nin retreated Jiraiya approached the Second Hokage with a guarded expression, "Greetings Hokage-sama, You're looking quite well for a dead guy... Care to tell me what's going on here?"

"I understand your confusion, Jonin-sama." The Hokage answered, "But I assure you that this is not a trick or illusion: I really am the Second Hokage."

"The name's Jiraiya." he said while shaking the Hokage's hand, "And while it's a great honour to fight alongside you, I'm afraid that still doesn't answer my questions."

Tobirama nodded in approval, he would be rather disappointed in his village if everyone simply accepted such events without question. So he gave Jiraiya a quick rundown on what happened as they made their way back to the arena where the main fight was quickly coming to an end.

* * *

With the Third and Kakashi:

The Third Hokage and Kakashi, alongside the Hokage's ANBU-squad sped towards the arena where the main fight was still going on between the invaders from Sound and the defenders from Konoha. Guy, Anko, Asuma, Kurenai and Hayate stood side by side to defend their village and hold the invaders back. Despite being outnumbered they managed to hold their ground. Konoha always favoured quality over quantity after all. So a group of Jonins were more than a match for Chunin and Genin, even if the latter had higher numbers on their side.

So when the Hokage himself appeared alongside the ANBU who were just done with the last evacuations a loud cheer erupted from the defenders and the tide of the battle quickly turned. Kabuto realised that things didn't go as planned when the Hokage appeared on the scene alive and well and gave the signal for retreat while he disappeared in the shadows to make his escape.

With their leadership gone and Konoha fighting back the Sound-ninjas quickly became overwhelmed and they massively fled for their lives. Soon Baki, who was now the highest in command on Suna's side, ordered their troops to withdraw as well.

Everywhere in the village the enemies were either surrendering or running for their lives to get as far away as possible. Here and there a few desperate ones decided to hold a last stand but these small groups were quickly defeated and killed. In a little less than forty-two minutes after it started the invasion of Konoha ended in an overwhelming victory for the defenders.

All around the village people started cheering and looking for their friends. Some mourned for the people lost or the buildings that were destroyed while others were celebrating their victory. Hiruzen allowed a small smile to grace his lips when he saw the youngest Genin-teams return alive and well to their senseis' side and made it a point of principle that he would personally congratulate each one of them.


	20. The aftermath and new missions

**20 – The aftermath and new missions**

It had been one week since the attempted invasion of Konoha ended and the village was finally starting to get back to usual. Despite Konoha winning, it was not without its losses. Still, the timely intervention of the first two Hokages had managed to minimize the casualties and legends of "Hokages fighting from beyond the grave" were spreading like wildfire across the elemental nations. The Hokages themselves had by now returned to the afterlife. As soon as Orochimaru died they were living on a limited amount of chakra and when it ran out the technique couldn't sustain them much longer. Before leaving they left some final words of wisdom behind though. Yamato had received a scroll from the first Hokage himself with more info on his artificial bloodline and how to use it to suppress demonic chakra. Meanwhile Tobirama had a long and heated discussion with one of his old students Danzo Shimura, who had a thoughtful look on his face after their little talk was over.

Tobirama and Jiraiya had also taken a look at Gaara's seal and found it to be rather flawed; in their attempt to drag as much chakra from Shukaku as possible the sealers had accidentally allowed the demon too much freedom to mess around with his head. So they placed a second layer on top of his seal to solve that problem. Temari was crying tears of joy when her brother was sleeping peacefully for the first time in his life.

Meanwhile the other jinchuriki Fu was taken to the hospital to treat her wounds she received in the battle against Gaara. Due to lack of space she was put in the same room as Shino who was still recovering from his earlier fight with her and had managed to sleep through the entire invasion. Their shared interest in bugs was enough to start a conversation and in less than a day the two became close friends. When Shibuki, the Jonin-commander of Taki, himself came to Konoha to pick Fu, Krios and the still recovering Heero up they promised each other to stay in touch and write letters. Both their immature teammates Kiba and Krios respectively had a field day when they found out and wouldn't stop pestering them about it.

Not surprisingly Suna blamed the whole thing on the Hidden Sound Village. They claimed that they were deceived by Orochimaru impersonating their Kage and vowed to renew their alliance. Though the Third knew better than to blindly trust them again after what they pulled, he also realized he couldn't afford another war. Fighting back a small invasion-force out of your home town was one thing but he knew better than to think Suna had lost all military power and would be easily defeated. Still he couldn't let them get way without any form of punishment, so the 'professor' showed once again why mastering politics was more important for a Kage than raw power. He managed to make Suna's council agree into handing both Gaara and Temari over to Konoha as political hostages or as he called it: "a sign of good faith and renewed friendship between their villages". The truth was that the council of Suna would have gladly paid him to take Gaara of their hands and they were quite eager to sign the contract they deemed very favourable for them. Temari was the only one that would be missed but they deemed her a small price to pay to get rid of the "demon-child".

At the end of the week the Hokage handed out the new promotions which were due after the events. Not surprisingly team seven all got promoted to Chunin for showing all the necessary abilities both in the exam and in the following invasion. Apart from them other promotions were handed out to Sakura, Shino, Mangetsu, Haku and Shikamaru for their victories in the exam. Karin was also rewarded for her contributions made during the invasion and had been granted citizenship of Konoha alongside her very own headband. She was placed with Gaara and Temari to form the new team twelve under their sensei Yamato.

And thus the attempted invasion of Konoha was soon behind them and life returned to normal. But with so many Chunin and Jonin wounded there came a new temporary policy of allowing Genin-teams to take up C and B-rank missions as well. And so the rookie teams found themselves facing all sorts of missions.

* * *

Team eight was deployed to Taki to assist them with security during the creation of the Hero Water, a process that could only be done once per decade. As part of Taki's alliance agreement with Konoha the latter had an exclusive right to purchase a limited amount of the coveted substance for its own use in manufacturing improved soldier pills.

Although the mission was rated an A-rank in the books, in actuality everyone agreed it was more like an easy C-rank. The high rank was for for ceremonial purposes only as no one really expected any trouble in the middle of an allied village. Therefore the Hokage deemed it safe to give the mission to the young team so he could safe his experienced Chunin and Jonin for the harder missions

At first the mission went as planned: team eight was properly greeted by the village elder Shibuki who invited them to the best hotel in town during their stay. As part of their mission they would need to oversee the extraction of pure Hero Water from a special type of plant that only grew in the village. It was a rather dull process which took one week to complete. In between their shifts they were free to wander the village so long as they weren't trespassing on forbidden areas. Shino spent most of his downtime in the company of Fu who was ecstatic to see them again so soon. Shino noticed that the girl really was treated harsh and with hostility in her own village and admired her cheerful attitude despite of it. As an Aburame, and a living insect hive, he was also used to being misunderstood and treated with disgust by the civilian population of Konoha so he easily bonded with the green-haired girl. Fu explained that Heero was still hospitalized but was expected to recover in a few weeks while Krios was sent on a solo-mission out of the village.

Team eight had one of the easiest missions they were ever on, but all good things must come to an end and their easy assignment went downhill when a missing-nin of Taki by the name of Suien showed up on the last day to steal the Hero-water for himself. What followed was quite a spectacular battle that ended in Suien's defeat when Shibuki drank the Hero-Water and used its power to defeat his old master. And just like Heero before him he also collapsed from the strain an overdose put on the human body. His situation was very dire for a few days but on the third day he finally awoke and he was able to resume his position as Jonin-commander, which was mostly a desk job anyway.

After that little incident team eight finished its mission according to plan and returned home to report a successful delivery of the Hero Water. Nobody noticed that Shino was even more quiet than he usually was on the way back and all but Kurenai missed the longing sigh he let out when they were released from duty. The Jonin wisely decided to keep it to herself and let her student deal with his first crush in his own time.

* * *

Meanwhile team nine received a mission to escort the famous film star Yukie Fujikaze from the "Princess Gale"-movies to the land of Snow for her next project. They soon realized the difficulties with their assignment as the actress refused to cooperate and had to be subdued and almost kidnapped before she even entered the ship. Tenten was quite annoyed to see the role model of many women act like a spoiled diva and not at all like the brave warrior she portrayed on the screen.

However soon they discovered that there was more to the actress than they first thought when during a live scene on an iceberg they were attacked by three ninjas from the Snow-village who were after the actress. They revealed that Yukie was actually Koyuki Kazahana, the former princess of the country who fled several years earlier when her uncle Dotō Kazahana had killed her father and took over the throne. During these last few years she went into hiding and lived undercover as one of the most famous filmstars in the Elemental Nations. Neji got quite the headache when no one else saw any problem with that.

What followed was a giant game of cat and mouse between team nine and Koyuki's uncle who wanted to steal her amulet, which was supposed to be the key to the country's greatest treasure. Eventually her uncle succeeded in kidnapping the princess and they used his private blimp to go towards the location of the fabled treasure.

Luckily team nine had a Byakugan-user with them and Neji had no problems to follow the blimp from a distance and soon they too arrived at the location of the secret weapon. They held a standoff against the enemy who claimed to be invincible because he was wearing a special kind of charka-armour which could absorb all ninjutsu. Hayate then tested if he was also immune against swords. It turned out that he wasn't.

In a last desperate act Dotō inserted the amulet into the device and turned the key to activate the hidden weapon. However the supposed weapon was actually a giant series of heating devices that melted all the snow and ice and turned the once frozen country into a beautiful paradise, including blooming flowers and butterflies that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. When Neji made a remark about that Tenten simply hit him in the head and told him to just roll with it.

Later Dotō was thrown in jail and Koyuki was named as the new Daimyo of the Land of Spring. Team nine was invited to the celebrations but they declined and said they had to return back to Konoha. On the boat back to the land of Fire Neji wondered if this was the kind of unbelievable missions his cousin and her team seemed to attract all the time.

* * *

The Genin of team ten were given a mission in the outer regions of the land of Tea while their sensei Asuma had a mission of his own. A bunch of local warlords were organising a race to determine who would gain control of the trading routes in that area for the next three years at which point a new race would be held. They were hired by one of the contestants to protect his runner during the event after his last candidate mysteriously disappeared in the previous race.

The runner in question was a young man named Idate, who seemed really tense around the Konoha-shinobi for some reason. Shikamaru immediately became suspicious of the young man and became convinced he had something to hide. His suspicion only grew when he displayed several skills that no civilian should have and which revealed he had received some sort of chakra-training in the past.

During the race itself they quickly realised that the other team had indeed hired ninjas of their own to get an edge in the competition. But unlike their protection-mission the other ninjas were hired to use whatever means necessary to make sure Idate wouldn't win.

It started innocently enough with a simple genjutsu that tricked him into running in circles. But when team ten dispelled it and Idate managed to reach the bay to start the part of the course on board a small ship, they became more serious. The second attempt involved trying to destroy his ship so he would be either forced to quit or lose so much time swimming he would lose the race anyway. These attempts were also easily stopped at first and when the boat was finally hit and started sinking after all, Idate surprised friend and foe by simply running the last part on top of the water. This once again made Shikamaru extremely suspicious of their client. Technically waterwalking was not restricted to just ninjas and it was perfectly possible that he picked up the trick somewhere else but if that was the case then why didn't he mention anything sooner? The Nara did not like a mystery and Idate simply screamed suspicious to him.

However things became serious after the Jonin of the enemy team revealed himself to finish the job his Genin failed. This Jonin turned out to be a missing-nin from Konoha that ran away years earlier with the Sword of the Thundergod that belonged to the Second Hokage. When he mentioned knowing Idate by name Shikamaru finally had enough of all the secrecy and demanded to know what was going on. Idate then explained his full name was Idate Morino and that he ran away from Konoha five years earlier. He said that the Jonin was Aoi, a former sensei at the Konoha-academy who tricked him into stealing the sword after failing the Chunin exams his brother Ibiki organised. The reason he wasn't officially wanted was that Konoha had labelled him dead instead of missing and thus wasn't actively searching for him.

His story was interrupted however when Aoi decided they had wasted enough time catching up and started attacking them to finish his mission. Normally they would have been no match for a Jonin but it turned out that he was only given the title by the Hidden Rain village because he managed to take the legendary sword of the Second Hokage with him and not because he truly deserved the title. He soon revealed himself as a one-trick pony of middle Chunin-rank at best who overly depended on his weapon. Thus when the Ino-Shika-Cho formation managed to catch and disarm him he was powerless against Choji's "Spiked Rolling Boulder"-technique and got defeated easily.

With the enemy out of the way Idate ran the last part of the race at full speed and managed to catch up to the other contestant, who was barely trying since he assumed it was already a fixed outcome, and won the event.

When Ibiki himself came to pick up Aoi, who was put in custody after the mission, he was surprised to see his brother alive and well but a silent understanding between the two made it clear that he wouldn't press it since returning him to Konoha would certainly mean a death-sentence. Team ten returned home without much trouble after that and was awarded quite a large bonus for not only bringing in the missing-nin Aoi but also for recovering the second Hokage's "Sword of the Thundergod". Despite the praise and respect they received, Shikamaru thought it was all too troublesome and was merely happy his mother was so proud of his achievements she stopped nagging him for a few weeks. He spent that time watching the clouds until eventually his good grace ran out and things returned to normal soon after.

* * *

Team eleven was tasked with destroying all the remaining bases of Orochimaru after one of his former bodyguards, a girl named Tayuya, revealed them all in exchange for her life. Normally this task was delegated to the ANBU exclusively but, given their past with the Snake-nin, Anko's team was allowed to contribute as a form of therapy. It soon turned out however that someone beat them there and many bases were already pillaged with the snake-nin's research notes either stolen or destroyed. That didn't stop Anko from destroying the bases anyway though. She needed the closure and she was going to get it no matter what!

During one of these raids on a prisoner camp they finally found Mangetsu's younger brother Suigetsu in a similar tank as the one he was found in months earlier. He was in a pretty bad shape and severely dehydrated but he was still alive and they managed to get him to Konoha to recover. Mangetsu didn't leave his side the entire time.

* * *

Around this time Jiraiya was also tasked with finding his old teammate Tsunade and bring her back to the village. The Third felt they needed her back to get the village's strength up again after the attack, or at least the illusion of strength as her glory days had long since past and the only fame she still carried was her name and her reputation.

Jiraiya wanted to bring Naruto with him on the trip to spent some more time with his godson but the Third refused to allow such blatant favouritism to pass and said that Naruto was expected to perform his duties with his team like any other Chunin in these hard times. Always ready to abuse loopholes Jiraiya then promptly hired all of team seven for an escort mission. Sarutobi threw his hands in the air out of frustration and allowed all three of them to go on this "B-class escort mission" just to get rid of Jiraiya. He did sent Gai on a different mission though since, loophole or not, he couldn't afford to waste a Jonin on this façade.

They were barely a few hours out of Konoha when they ran into trouble. Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki, two members of the Akatsuki, had appeared in Konoha and managed to find out Naruto's location. After Itachi used a genjutsu on a blonde woman to lure Jiraiya away the two Akatsuki-members went to the hotel Team Seven was staying in to find their target.

When Sasuke aimlessly looked through the window and saw his brother carelessly walking up to his hotel he nearly lost it and would have jumped down to attack him then and there on the street. It was only his training and extensive counselling that allowed him to grasp onto his last sense of self-control and alert his teammates instead. As much as he wanted to take revenge, he knew that he wasn't ready yet and facing Itachi now would be nothing but suicide. 'A good shinobi knows patience and isn't led by his emotions.' he repeated over and over to convince himself he made the right decision.

As such when Itachi knocked on the door to lure their target out he was instead treated by a giant explosion courtesy of Naruto who was becoming really good at making explosive seals by now. Although the entire room was blown apart the two targets of the explosion got away with barely a scratch. You don't become an S-rank ninja for nothing after all. Still the tag did its work as Jiraiya got the message and appeared on the scene almost immediately. The toad sage wasted no time when he spotted their opponents.

He flipped through several handseals at a blinding speed and summoned a weird flesh like substance all around them that started to slowly entrap and digest both missing-ninja. Jiraiya claimed it was inescapable but Itachi managed to get out easily by using the Amaterasu and literally burning his way through Jiraiya's technique. Itachi sensed more reinforcements approaching from Konoha, including the chakra-signature of his old captain Kakashi, and deemed their mission too complicated to continue. Pain had ordered them to gather intel and avoid confrontation where possible. Starting a fight with the ANBU-commander and a Sannin in broad daylight was not his idea of "staying under the radar". So with a nod to Kisame he ended their mission and they both fled the scene towards the Land of Earth where they had to find intel on the four-tails as well.

When both Akatsuki-members disappeared in a series of shunshins Jiraiya's first instincts were to chase them but he changed his mind when he saw the black flames that were still burning despite team seven's attempt to put them out with a water-jutsu. 'I better do something about those before this entire town gets reduced to ashes.' he thought.

Jiraiya took a special sealing scroll and started drawing a complex array with the kanji for 'FIRE' in the middle. He approached the black flames that were still burning their way through the wall and when he activated the seal they were sucked into the complex array and disappeared completely. With the danger averted he noticed with a frown that Itachi and Kisame were too far gone by now to be followed and that the Akatsuki had managed to slip away from him yet again.

The rest of the trip was more relaxed as team seven slowly followed Tsunade's trail from one gambling hall to the next. During their trip they spent the downtime keeping up with their training-schedules. Jiraiya wanted to teach Naruto the rasengan but the blond didn't saw the point as he already had plenty of lethal close-combat attacks, when he showed Jiraiya his hidden blade coated in a layer of razor-sharp wind chakra the toad sage reluctantly had to agree. Instead Naruto kept asking him about that scroll he had used on the Amaterasu and how it worked. Jiraiya got fed up with all his high-level questions about sealing, since they kept him away from his research, and decided to just hand the damn scroll over so he could study it in his own time. Naruto spent the rest of the trip studying the scroll and trying to decipher how he could harness the power of the black flames inside it.

Eventually they caught up with Tsunade, her apprentice Shizune and a pet pig named Tonton in a gambling town named Tanzaku Gai. They spent less than five minutes talking before Tsunade and Naruto's personalities clashed; Tsunade insulted the previous Hokages after all and called it a fool's job. After a lot of yelling and throwing around insults, including a very short and one-sided mock battle, Tsunade made a bet with Naruto that he couldn't summon the Amaterasu from the storage scroll within ten days. She was so sure of her bet that she even threw in the necklace of the First Hokage to taunt him.

Naruto then spent the next ten days studying and carefully experimenting with the seal, often to a point where a normal person would have been exhausted and needed to stop. But at last on the final day he succeeded in safely isolating a part of the Amaterasu, which was still burning inside the boxed dimension of the scroll, and shoot it out using his combatgloves as a medium. With a second seal that he inscribed directly on the metal he could then call it back safely to use again later. Since the flow of time inside the seal was halted to a minimum (there would be no point of storage seals if food could still perish and rot naturally) his new "Amaterasu-canon", as he dubbed the technique, could be used near indefinitely since he only opened the seal for mere milliseconds each shot and the fire was said to burn for weeks on end. He also noted his gloves adapted to their new function and could now also grow into a fourth shape with a barrel-like spike growing out of the place in between the middle knuckles. He tried it once and found this form to be much better suited for aiming where his black flames would land.

Needless to say Tsunade was stunned he actually managed to do something like that and grudgingly handed over the necklace she wagered.

When team Seven returned to Konoha with Tsunade in tow they attracted quite the audience from the villagers. Despite her recent disappearance and bad habits Tsunade was still well liked and highly respected. Being the granddaughter of the founder of this village didn't hurt her popularity either. After checking in with the Hokage Tsunade took back her old position as head of the medical corps from the recently disgraced Kobaru Itikasi who had quit after his adopted son Kabuto was revealed to be a spy for Orochimaru. A session with Ibiki revealed Kobaru was innocent but his reputation took a dive nonetheless and he was forced to stand down after a public outcry.

Despite still being grumpy and complaining a lot Shizune revealed that Tsunade was actually quite happy to be back after all these years. She also decided to finally start with her life-long plans of a real medical corps for Konoha and placing a healer in every squad.

The Third did not dare to refuse her a second time so he stamped all the documents she needed and let her free to do whatever she wanted as long as she stayed in Konoha.

* * *

Finally four months after the invasion things seemed to have returned back to normal. With Tsunade's help the rest of the wounded made a quick recovery and soon Konoha's forces were back to full strength and with it the distribution of missions slowly returned to normal for the rookie teams.

This newly found peace didn't rest long however as less than one week after their last B-rank team seven found themselves back in the mission room alongside team Anko.

"Hey guys," Naruto greeted the other team, "any idea what the mission is?"

"I have no idea," Haku said, "we only arrived back this morning and were immediately brought here. I didn't even have time to unpack yet."

"Strange." Sasuke remarked, "Why would they sent you guys out so soon? I know there are plenty of other teams ready to be deployed."

"That would be because the client for this mission specifically requested your teams," The Hokage said as he walked in with a familiar face in tow.

"Zabuza-sama!" Haku's eyes widened as he recognized his old mentor and father figure Zabuza Momochi walking in behind the Hokage.

The swordsman smiled under his bandages and rubbed his hand through his former apprentice's hair. "You're looking good Haku. Staying in this village made you stronger, I can tell just by looking at you."

The Hokage coughed in his hand to break up the moment and get everyone's attention again. "As I said: the client, mister Momochi, specifically asked for your teams. So if you would explain the mission, Zabuza?"

Zabuza nodded and focussed his attention back on the group, "As you all know I joined the rebels in Kiri after we said put goodbyes in Wave. For the last seven months we have prepared out forces in secret against the Mizukage. And now our leader Mei Terumi thinks we are ready for the final push."

"That's great. But what do you want us to do then?" Naruto asked.

"Our forces are ready to handle the main combat zones and Mei can take down the Mizukage. What we need you to do is be our support and take over the communications tower to stop them from calling in the forces that are currently outside the village."

"What do you mean with 'forces outside the village'?" Hinata asked.

"As part of the plan we have lured away a battalion of one thousand shinobi to what they assume is our headquarters. In actuality they will travel for a week towards a deserted island. We will use that time to mount our attack and take control of Kiri when their defences are weakened."

"But what will you do once that army returns? I reckon they won't be happy they were fooled."

"That's where you are wrong, miss Hyuuga," Zabuza explained, "The majority of Kiri doesn't care which side wins and only wants what is best for the village. So while they would die in defence for the village or because the Mizukage orders it, they won't launch a second war once our side is clearly victorious. If we manage to kill Yagura and end his tyranny the rest of Kiri will soon fall in line and join Mei. It's our job to make sure the take-over happens with as little bloodshed as possible. That's why we want those forces out of Kiri and that's why it is crucial that you take control of the communications tower."

"I see, so when do we leave?" Mangetsu asked.

"You will leave tonight." The Hokage said, "This plan will only work in the small time frame when the main army is absent. Therefore it is crucial not to waste time any more. So go and prepare yourself, You will be at the gates in two hours ready to leave."

"Yes Hokage-sama!" The Chunin said before preparing themselves for the invasion of Kiri.


	21. Battle of the Hidden Mist Village

**21) Battle of the Hidden Mist Village**

Zabuza led the two teams from Konoha to the base of the rebels hidden deep inside the Land of Water. They had travelled non-stop for three days ever since they left Konoha. Team Seven was used to Gai pushing them to travel at the same speeds so they didn't complain at the otherwise brutal tempo Zabuza set. Once inside the Land of Water they slowed down only to avoid being seen by Kiri's patrols. Hinata's Byakugan helped them a lot here and they managed to avoid detection entirely and still keep up a high speed.

They arrived at a seemingly normal fishing village when Zabuza stopped them and approached a small fish market.

"Welcome, shinobi-san." The fishmonger greeted him, "How can I help you today?"

"I am in need of some fresh supplies." Zabuza answered.

"Anything specific you have in mind? The salmon is on sale today."

"No thanks, I'll take some tuna instead. My friend recommended the special tuna you keep in the back."

"Right this way," the fishmonger said casually and lead the team towards the back of his store where he quickly sent them down a hidden trapdoor that was hidden underneath a barrel of fishheads.

"Is this the entrance to the rebel base?" Anko asked curiously.

"Yes," Zabuza nodded, "in order to keep Kiri's hunters at bay we use a system of these hidden trapdoors to keep our location a secret. Only by telling the fishmonger the correct password are you allowed in. Otherwise you are none the wiser as to the true purpose of the shop."

"But how come the Hunter-nin didn't discover such a trick long ago?" Gai asked curiously.

"That's the beauty of it." Zabuza said smiling, "They are looking for ninja. Therefore they have several sensors amongst their tracking teams to find anyone with a well developed chakra-network as well as to discover any genjutsu we might use to hide our bases. However the man you just met earlier isn't a ninja but a simple civilian; he doesn't have any noticeable chakra for them to detect. Similarly the entrance we just took was hidden under a barrel instead of disguised with genjutsu. In a way our methods are too primitive for them to discover."

Gai chuckled at the genius behind the seemingly primitive method as the group went deeper underground until they finally reached a large open area. What once was a large underground cave was now filled to the brim with activity. Some of the guards looked up but went back to their duty as they recognized Zabuza. A few people greeted the swordsman as he walked through the camp towards one of the biggest tents in the middle. One of the Chunin guards went inside to announce their arrival and several moments later a young beautiful women with long auburn hair walked out of the tent.

"Hello there," she said, "I am Mei Terumi, leader of the rebellion. Is this the special ops unit you mentioned, Zabuza?"

"Yes, my lady." Zabuza answered with a small bow, "These are Haku of the Yuki-clan, Jugo of the Ryugetsu-clan and Mangetsu of the Hozuki-clan. The latter also is the wielder of Kiba, the Thunderswords."

Many surprised gasps were heard at that last name as the Hozuki-clan was once the biggest and most prominent clan in Kiri; they were one of the founders and even their second Mizukage was a Hozuki. Furthermore he was also one of the seven swordsmen, a group which even now was held in high regard.

"I see," Mei said, "and the Konoha-nin?"

"I met them in the land of Waves. I can personally vouch they are more than capable to infiltrate and take over the communications tower."

"Very well then," Mei said and turned towards Gai, "I will trust Zabuza's judgment. You have one day to rest and prepare yourself, the attack begins tomorrow at dawn. You are invited to the strategy meeting later where you will receive your orders."

"As you wish, Ma'am." Gai said with a salute and followed a Chunin who led them to their tents.

* * *

The next day:

Team seven was silently sneaking through the empty streets of Kiri on their way to their target. Once again Hinata's Byakugan helped them to easily avoid all patrols without problem. But even then they noticed there were less of those than expected. 'It seems their diversion worked and the bulk of Kiri's forces isn't in the village now' they all thought.

When they reached their target Hinata once again took a peak with her all-seeing eyes. Right now their were only three guards present in the tower but they knew that once the fighting started they would have to hold off many more who would try to sent a message.

Gai looked at the time and saw they only had twenty minutes left to capture and fortify the tower. With a quick handsign he have his students their orders. Team seven jumped out of cover and ran straight to the tower. The first guard, who was nearing the end of a six hour shift, was barely aware of what happened when Naruto jumped on him from behind and hit his head hard. He fell down without making a sound. Inside the tower Sasuke had subdued the second guard just as quickly while Hinata ran up the walls straight to the top. She reached the top floor and attacked the third guard before he had managed to sound the alarm.

With the guards tied down and out of the picture team Seven started setting up a barricade at the entrance. A quick glance at the time told them they had about ten minutes before the main fighting would start and they would need to hold this place and stop the enemy from calling reinforcements. After blocking the main entrance with a variety of stuff they set up a second perimeter for them to hide behind and from which they could take aim at those who entered through the door.

Meanwhile Gai went towards the cages with all the messenger birds and started the second phase of the plan. Normally he would just kill them and be done with it but Mei insisted that the birds needed to be kept alive for their own use in the future. They wanted to take over the village after all, not raze it to the ground. So instead he carefully mixed a paralysing drug in their food and water. Anko had personally created this drug the day before from a strong poison courtesy of her snake-summons. After checking that the drug worked and the first birds started falling asleep Gai went back down to help his students set up the defences. They only had a few minutes left according to schedule.

* * *

Meanwhile at the outskirts of town:

Zabuza looked around him at the battalion of five hundred soldiers under his command and inwardly sighed. Though the rebellion was quite large they did not have many experienced ninja in their ranks. His own men only counted fifty ninja and only five of those could be considered Jonin. The rest were mere samurai. And not the good kind like they had in the Land of Iron either, but regular samurai. Still the enemy also fought with only their Genin and a bare minimum of Chunin present as the main army was successfully lured away. So all in all the odds evened out somewhat

When the time came for the attack he grabbed his sword and raised it to the sky to rally his troops and on his command they all ran forwards towards the village itself. The patrols guarding the wall never stood a chance against the sudden attack and Zabuza's sword cleaved a path through their numbers. Their short initial victory didn't last long however as soon after several alarms started sounding all throughout the village and more and more ninja woke up and started joining the defense of their village.

Once past the gate Zabuza's army split in five with each of his Jonin leading one platoon towards a different part of the village to wreck chaos and confusion but above all keep the enemy occupied. He knew Mei's army would be doing the same thing right now and hopefully they would be able to distract the defenders enough for him and Mei to take out Yagura before too many people died.

* * *

Ten minutes since the start of the battle:

The members of team eleven were preparing themselves for the next group that would enter their tower to try and sent a message. After clearing the tower and putting all the messenger-hawks to sleep they too had put up a barricade to hold their ground until the battle was over. Less than three minutes after the first explosion rocked the city and woke everyone up a Chunin had already ran inside the tower to sent a message out. He was in such a hurry that he barely noticed the debris laying around and was completely taking by surprise as Haku used an ice-attack to flash-freeze him.

Two minutes later two more Chunin entered the tower and they fell to snake-bites in their necks. Anko had chosen a snake with a fast-acting but not lethal type of poison. The three unconscious ninja were currently stacked in a storage room until the fight would be over.

However things were about to become a whole lot harder since Kiri's Jonin-commander Ao realized the towers were taken and had actually sent a full force this time instead of just a single ninja.

Zabuza meanwhile had taken a small strike-team with him that separated from the rest of his invading battalion. In the midst of the chaos caused by the ten smaller troops who were taking over key positions all over the village he and Mei were heading for their main target: the Mizukage. Yagura had yet to make an appearance on the battlefield, something they both were very grateful for since the little man would be a very dangerous opponent even without the use of the three-tails sealed within him.

Five minutes later, after having faced only minimal resistance from unfortunate ninja who crossed their path, Zabuza's team met up with Mei. Mei had forsaken her usual attire which consisted of a blue robe in favour of something you'd expect on a samurai; with body armour, studded underclothes and protective gear on her arms and legs. She was also wielding a small ninjato for the occasion. Her normally wild auburn hair was now tightly held together in a single ponytail to not be in her way. She was dressed for war and Zabuza thought this new look was better than her usual attire.

The two nodded and then headed towards the Mizukage-tower without saying another word.

* * *

Fifteen minutes since the start of the invasion:

Team seven was now fighting for their lives trying to hold their position. After the first few attempts to sent a message failed the ninja of Kiri realized the towers were already compromised and had now sent a much larger force to take them out. The only reason they weren't already overwhelmed was that their attackers had explicit orders not to destroy or damage the tower for fear of losing all their hawks should the structure collapse. This included not using any damaging ninjutsu.

As such team seven had to merely hold their physical attacks off while they were free to fight back with all their tricks. Since they continued not killing anyone but merely knocking them out or putting them to sleep with more of Anko's poison the attackers weren't motivated to break orders the way facing deadly opposition would have.

Their tactic consisted of Gai and Sasuke using taijutsu to hold them back, Naruto then binded them with his chains to drain them of chakra while Hinata shot others with her bow. By minimizing the chakra she put in forming her arrows she was not only able to shoot a lot more than she usually could but it also insured the hits weren't lethal but still disrupted the chakra-network enough to make them lose consciousness for a few hours.

Under normal circumstances they would be easily overwhelmed on open terrain but since they positioned themselves right in front of the only entrance to the tower and barricaded the side completely they had managed to turn the enemies numbers against them in the confined space of the structure. So far they also only had to deal with Genin or the lone Chunin and they were more than a match for those. However their luck wouldn't last long when one of the Chunin managed to escape and get Jonin-level reinforcements.

* * *

"Lava Style: Lava Blob!" Mei said as she spit out a small projectile towards the front gates of the Mizukage-tower. The attack was pretty simple and primitive in nature., had it been water-based it would barely classify as D-rank. However as soon as contact was made the lava melted through the doors and destroyed all the reinforcement seals with barely any opposition. The real power of the lava-style was the almost nothing could defend against the sheer destructive power of the element itself. Where people could take a Water Dragon head on and still live or flare their chakra to guard against a Fire-attack and not be burned, they could not do that with lava. Any form of contact against even the smallest amount of lava was highly lethal. Similarly it could destroy all known materials and no amount of reinforcement seal could withstand an item being submerged in lava for any usable amount of time. Only a tailed beast was shown to be strong enough to withstand the stuff and even then it took massive damage.

Zabuza gulped at seeing the amount of destruction the simple attack had caused, 'I'm glad she is on my side. I hate to be fighting that.' he thought before grasping his sword and following his general into the Turtle's Den as the tower was called by the local population. He was surprised that Yagura still hadn't made an appearance in the fight. He knew the Mizukage was supposedly a shut-in but surely he should have made an exception when his village was under attack, right?

* * *

Ao was looking at the the thick mist of the "Hidden Mist Technique" that the rebels had used to hide themselves in. He noticed early on that the so-called invasion force wasn't acting like one. Rather than rushing and trying to overwhelm them in a blitzkrieg they had split up and were now holding onto several key points of the city. They were fighting for half an hour now and they still hadn't moved on from their initial position. And now they had even used the Hidden Mist Technique to hide themselves in and make it harder for the Kiri-nin to engage them. At least that was one problem he didn't have. Years ago he had implanted a Byakugan in his eye and now he could see through this mist clear as day. With Kiri's anti-bloodline campaigns he came close to being persecuted but eventually the Mizukage decided that his eye was not a natural part of his body and did not count as possessing a bloodline. Therefore he was allowed to keep it and since then he made quite the reputation for himself. Eventually he became Kiri's Jonin-commander and thus he was the one in charge until the Mizukage showed up. 'Speaking of which, what is Yagura doing anyway? Where is he?'

"Commander!" a voice caught his attention as he turned towards one of his lieutenants.

"Yes?" he asked.

"We have received news from the squad that was sent towards the communication towers, sir" the man said, "Both towers are still being held by unknown enemy forces and our troops did not manage to get in."

He cursed inwardly at the bad news and wished the main army was still here, he hated being stuck with a force of Genin and rookies to defend the Village, he wondered what the Mizukage was thinking by acting so recklessly based on nothing but rumours. "how many casualties did we suffer?" he asked

The young man looked at his report and seemed uncertain before shrugging and answering anyway, "According to our latest report we have no casualties. All our troops are still alive and unharmed, though many are unable to continue fighting due to heavy strains on their chakra-network."

He looked surprised at this report and wondered what it meant, 'no casualties, minimal physical damage, chakra-exhaustion... It looks like they went out of their way to keep our men alive and use non-lethal methods. But why would they do that?'

"There is something strange going on with this supposed invasion." he said, "And it looks like that tower is the best way to get some answers. I'll go there myself."

And with that he headed towards the Eastern communication tower where team Seven was stationed to see who was stopping his men from sending for help and to get some answer out of them about this pseudo-invasion.

* * *

Zabuza was breathing heavily as he knocked down the last of the Mizukage's guards with the flat end of his blade. Though the main force of Jonin was gone to fight the rebels in their fake hide-out the Mizukage had kept his own private guard behind. So while he and Mei approached the Mizukage's office they met with the four Jonin that were stationed in front of the heavy doors. A quick fight later and all four were taken out. They tried to minimize damage as much as possible but Zabuza feared he heard some bones breaking when he slammed one of them against the wall. Mei's fight was a lot more cleaner and her opponents were both unharmed after she knocked them out.

The two rebels steadied themselves and then opened the doors of the Mizukage's office to end their long rebellion.

* * *

Ao landed in front of the communications tower and approached the Chunin in charge, "What's the current situation?" he demanded from the young woman.

"There are four enemy ninja inside the tower, sir." the girl answered her commander, "Three are high Chunin level and one is a Jonin. They have taken advantage of the narrow corridor to reduce our numbers so we can't overwhelm them. We also tried sneaking around them through one of the various other entrance-points but every time we do so someone is waiting for us on the inside, as if they know where we will come from."

Ao nodded and then turned towards the tower, '3 high Chunin and 1 Jonin... I wasn't aware the rebels had more people like that. I thought all their known Jonin were seen somewhere in the village. Then who are these guys? Let's find out.'

He activated the Byakugan he kept hidden under his eye-patch to peek at the tower and to take a look at these mysterious ninja. He immediately spotted them and frowned at what he saw. He didn't recognize any of them, which already proved they weren't known missing-nin, but he did recognize the girl. More specifically he recognized that she too had a Byakugan, but unlike his own hers was natural, 'A Hyuga? No wonder sneak attacks don't work on them. She sees our men coming long before they suspect someone spotted them.'

On closer inspection he also saw one of the two boys had a Sharingan active. 'A Hyuga and an Uchiha? What are Konoha-nin doing here?'

He decided that the best way to find out was to simply ask them. After all they hadn't killed anyone so far so they weren't as hostile as he first assumed. Besides he was convinced he could defend himself should it come to a fight. So with that he walked straight in the tower with a straight pose to confront the Konoha-nin. As Ao entered the main hall he held his empty hands in the air as a sign he was unarmed and came to talk rather than fight.

With Hinata's Byakugan team seven already knew he was coming and waited for him on top of their makeshift barricade with their weapons ready. Gai raised his hand to stop his students from attacking the man. He had studied the bingo-book before and recognized the man before him as Kiri's Jonin-commander and an elite ninja. Though he was very proud of his team and their growth he also knew that this was one enemy they couldn't handle yet, so if he could resolve this without unnecessary conflict he would hear the man out. That didn't mean he would blindly trust him of course, even unarmed a ninja was still extremely dangerous. He should know, he himself specialised in taijutsu after all.

Ao stopped a good ten metres in front of the barricade and looked at his opponents with his one natural eye. Being convinced they truly weren't affiliated with any of Kiri's former bloodline clans he decided to take a small gamble and throw his cards on the table to see if he was right, "So do tell me, What exactly are Konoha-nin doing occupying my communications-tower?" he asked in a demanding tone.

Gai gave no signs of being caught of guard but inwardly he was cursing at being found out. They had very carefully removed all things that could identify them as Konoha-nin., he even ordered Hinata and Sasuke to wear sunglasses to hide their respective Dojutsu. But somehow they were found out anyway and now Konoha was identified as taking part in the rebellion. Still they had to say something so Gai decided to play it innocently for now, "Konoha? And what makes you think we are Leaf-ninja?"

Ao smiled inwardly as he realized his suspicions were correct. "Don't bother denying it. Where else would a Hyuga and an Uchiha come from?"

Sasuke and Hinata cursed under their breath that the enemy found out their true identity. They had been extra careful not to give it away by using clan-techniques or wearing their usual clothes but apparently they figured it out anyway.

"Anyway," Ao continued, "care to elaborate what is going here? Who are you working for? And what is their real objective? I know that the armies holding out in the village are only a distraction."

Gai was about to attack him when a sudden explosion drew everyone's attention. They heard the ninja outside screaming in panic as all hell broke loose around them. 'What the hell just happened?' they all thought.

* * *

Five minutes earlier:

Zabuza kicked in the door of the Mizukage-tower as he and Mei approached the small man sitting behind the desk working on some documents. Yagura looked up in surprise at the intrusion and frowned at seeing his door destroyed, "God dammit Zabuza. Why do have to make such a mess wherever you go? That door is coming out of your next pay check. Now is their something you wanted when you barged in without making an appointment?"

The swordsman blinked and then blinked again, at the unexpected response of the jinchuuriki and wondered if this was some kind of trick.

Yagura lost his patience at Zabuza's silence and turned towards Mei, "Miss Terumi, perhaps you can explain why you two barged in my office like this."

Mei too seemed to confused to react but quickly got to her senses and said the speech she had prepared ages ago for when she finally met the Mizukage. "Yagura. I came here in the name off those innocents you have killed to put an end to your bloody campaign against bloodline-users and to restore Kiri to its former glo..."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Yagura interrupted her, "What campaign against bloodline-users? Why would I want to get rid of bloodline users?"

Zabuza was getting annoyed at the Mizukage's games and was losing his patience, "Stop playing innocent! You know damn well what we are talking about."

Suddenly they heard laughter coming from behind the Mizukage as a vortex appeared behind Yagura's back and a man dressed in black robes appeared out of thin air, his face was hidden behind an orange spiralling mask that only revealed his right eye. "I'm afraid, Mei-chan, Zabuza-chan that good old Yagura here has not been himself these last few years. As far as he knows the bloodline purge never happened, nor would he ever dream of ordering such a thing. It took me a considerable amount of 'persuasion' to make him sign that order after all."

"Who are you?!" Zabuza demanded while pointing his blade at the masked man.

"You can call me... Tobi" Tobi said as he put his hand on an unresponsive Yagura's shoulder, "and this is my loyal puppet Yagura-chan."

Mei wasted no time and launced a stream of lava straight at Tobi's face but to her surprise it simply went though him and melted a hole in the wall behind him as he stood there unharmed. "tsk tsk tsk Mei-chan. That wasn't very nice now was it? Someone might have gotten hurt if you aren't careful" he said while laughing like a child at his own joke.

"You won't get away with this!" Zabuza yelled as he raised his blade and slashed at the masked man. Yet his attack also went straight through Tobi without any damage whatsoever.

"Almost got me, mister swordsman" Tobi taunted him. "But look at the time, I have to go."

With that the masked man disappeared in another vortex and reappeared behind the still dazed Mizukage, "But before that: here's a goodbye present from me." he said while placing his hands on Yagura's back and finally disappeared in another vortex while laughing.

"What was that all about?" Mei asked.

Before Zabuza could answer Yagura shaking wildly as large amounts of demonic chakra quickly leaked out of the seal placed between his shoulder blades where Tobi had touched him earlier.

"Oh crap." Zabuza said before turning around and running away dragging Mei with him, "We have to get out now!"

* * *

present time:

A large explosion shook the village as the Three-tailed Turtle quickly formed itself and burst out of the Kage-tower.

TBC

* * *

A/N: cliffhanger-no-jutsu. Man, I'm evil :p


End file.
